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UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS  STUDIES 

IN  THE 

SOCIAL  SCIENCES 

VOL.    111.      NO.      3  SEPTEMBER,    1914 


The  Scandinavian  Element  in 
the  United  States 


BY 


KENDRIC  CHARLES  BABCOCK,  Ph.  D. 

Dean  of  the  College  of  Liberal  Arts  and  Sciences  in  the  University  of  Illinois 
Sometime  Fellow  in  the  University  of  Minnesota  and  in  Harvard  University 


PRICE    $1.00      ,. 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
URBANA 


COPYRIGHT,  1914 
BY  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 


.  I 


TO 

HARRY  PRATT  JUDSON.,  KNUTE  NELSON,, 
NICOLA Y  A.  GREVSTAD,  AND  ALBERT  BUSHNELL  HART 

IN  GRATEFUL  RECOGNITION  OP 

UNFAILING   ASSISTANCE,  ENCOURAGEMENT, 

AND  FAITHFUL  CRITICISM 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 
Introduction — General  discussion 7-14 

CHAPTER  II 
Swedes,  Norwegians,  and  Danes  15-21 

CHAPTER  III 
Early  Norwegian  Immigration 22-34 

CHAPTER  IV 
The  Rising  Stream  of  Norwegian  Immigration 35-49 

CHAPTER  V 
Swedish  Immigration  before  1850 50-61 

CHAPTER  VI 
The  Danish  Immigration  62-65 

CHAPTER  VII 
A  Half  Century  of  Expansion  and  Distribution,  1850-1900 66-78 

CHAPTER  VIII 
Economic  Forces  at  Work 79-105 

CHAPTER  IX 
The  Religious  and  Intellectual  Standpoint  106-129 

CHAPTER  X 
Social  Relations  and  Characteristics 130-139 

CHAPTER  XI 
The  Scandinavian  in  Local  and  State  Politics 140-156 

CHAPTER  XII 
Party  Preferences  and  Political  Leadership 157-178 

CHAPTER  XIII 
Conclusion .". 179-182 

CHAPTER  XIV 
Critical  Essay  on  Materials  and  Authorities 183-204 

APPENDIX  I 
Statistical  Tables  of  Population 206-216 

APPENDIX  II 

Statistics  of  Three  Minnesota  Counties 217 

• 

INDEX   219-223 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

The  history  of  the  United  States,  according  to  newer 
views  which  have  largely  supplanted,  or  progressed  be- 
yond, those  of  the  New  England  school  of  great  historians, 
is  the  history  of  the  march  of  a  civilization,  chiefly  English, 
across  the  vast  North  American  continent,  within  the 
short  period  of  three  hundred  years.  It  is  the  story  of  the 
transformation  of  a  widVstretching  wilderness — of  an  ever- 
advancing  frontier — into  great  cities,  diversified  industries, 
varying  social  interests,  and  an  intensely  complex  life. 
Wave  upon  wave  of  races  of  mankind  has  flowed  over  the 
developing  and  enlarging  West,  and  each  bas  left  its  im- 
press on  that  area.  Across  the  trail  of  the  Indian  and  the 
trapper,  the  highway  of  the  pioneer  on  his  westward 
journey,  have  spread  the  tilled  fields  of  the  farmer,  or 
along  it  has  run  the  railroad.  The  farm  has  become  a 
town-site  and  then  a  manufacturing  city;  the  trading  post 
at  St.  Paul  and  the  village  by  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony 
have  expanded  into  the  Twin  Cities  of  the  Northwest;  the 
marshy  prairie  by  the  side  of  Lake  Michigan,  where  the 
Indians  fought  around  old  Fort  Dearborn,  has  come  to  be 
one  of  the  world's  mighty  centers  of  urban  population — 
and  all  this  transformation  within  the  memory  of  men 
now  living. 

The  progress  of  this  rapid,  titanic  evolution  of  an  em- 
pire was  greatly  accelerated  by  the  desires,  the  strength, 
and  the  energy  of  multitudes  of  immigrants  from  Europe ; 
and  in  at  least  six  great  commonwealths  of  the  Northwest 
the  Swedes,  Norwegians,  and  Danes  have  been  among  the 
chief  contributors  to  State-building.  During  the  eighty 
years  ending  in  June,  1906,  among  the  24,000,000  immi- 
grants who  came  to  the  United  States,  the  Scandinavians 

7 


8  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [238 

numbered  more  than  1,700,000.  Whether  viewed  as  emi- 
grations on  the  eastern  shores  of  the  Atlantic,  or  as  immi- 
grations on  the  western  shores,  these  modern  Volkerwan- 
derungen  constitute  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  social  world, 
in  comparison  with  which  most  of  the  other  migrations  in 
history  are  numerically  insignificant.  The  Israelites 
marching  out  of  Egypt  were  but  a  mass  of  released  bond- 
men ;  the  invasions  of  the  Goths,  Vandals,  and  Huns  were 
conquering  expeditions,  full  of  boisterous,  thoughtless, 
unforecasting  energy.  Even  the  immigration  from  Europe 
to  America  in  the  whole  of  the  seventeenth  century  scarcely 
equalled  in  number  the  columns  which  moved  westward  in 
any  one  year  from  1880  to  1890. 

In  this  flux  of  humanity,  mobile  almost  to  fluidity, 
various  in  promise  of  utility,  shifting  in  proportions  of  the 
good  and  bad,  of  pauper,  refugee,  and  fanatic,  or  "bird  of 
passage",  sweatshop  man,  and  home-builder,  there  has  been 
such  an  interplay  of  subtle  and  vast  forces  that  no  just 
and  final  appreciation  can  as  yet  be  reached.  But  some 
sort  of  tentative  conclusions  may  be  arrived  at  by  intensive 
study  of  each  immigrant  group,  following  it  through  years 
and  generations,  searching  for  its  ramifications  in  the  body 
politic  and  social. 

The  student  of  this  phase  of  American  history  must 
attempt  the  scientific  method,  and  exercise  the  patience,  of 
the  student  of  physical  nature.  No  geologist,  for  example, 
would  think  for  a  moment  of  generalizing  as  to  the  history 
and  the  future  of  a  continent  of  complicated  structure 
after  a  few  examinations  here  and  there  of  cross-sections 
of  its  strata.  He  must  know  from  thoro-going  observation 
the  trend,  thickness,  and  composition  of  each  stratum;  he 
must  trace,  if  possible,  the  sources  of  the  material  which  he 
finds  metamorphosed ;  he  must  be  familiar  with  the  physical 
and  the  chemical  forces  at  work  in  and  on  this  material, — 
heat,  pressure,  movement,  affinities,  gases,  water,  wind, 
and  sun.  In  like  manner,  the  student  of  immigration  as 
a  whole,  or  of  a  section  as  large  as  that  of  the  Scandinavians 
or  Italians,  must  make  careful  discriminations  as  to  pre- 


239]  INTRODUCTION  9 

vious  conditions  and  influences,  and  also  must  notice  care- 
fully the  differentiation  of  peoples,  places,  and  times. 

Too  much  stress,  however,  should  never  be  laid  on  the 
character  of  any  one  group  of  immigrants,  lest  it  warp  the 
judgment  upon  the  immigration  movement  as  a  factor  in 
American  progress.  The  ardent  political  reformer  in  New 
York  City,  seeing  the  political  activity  of  the  Irish,  and  the 
easy,  fraudulent  enfranchisement  of  newly-arrived  aliens, 
cries  in  a  loud  voice  for  restriction  or  prohibition  of  immi- 
gration. The  California  labor  agitator,  feeling  chiefly  the 
effect  of  Chinese  efficiency  in  the  labor  market,  would  close 
the  gates  of  the  country  to  all  the  eastern  nations.  The 
social  worker,  knowing  mainly  and  best  the  degradation  of 
the  Hungarians  in  the  mines,  or  of  the  Hebrews  in  the 
sweatshops,  prophesies  naught  but  evil  from  foreign  immi- 
gration. From  an  opposite  point  of  view,  when  a  man 
travels  in  leisurely  fashion  up  and  down  Wisconsin,  Illi- 
nois, Minnesota,  and  the  Dakotas,  and  finds  a  dozen  race 
elements — English,  German,  Norwegian,  or  Russian — he 
begins  to  understand  the  real  benefit  to  the  nation  of  the 
coming  of  this  vast,  varied,  peaceful  army.1  The  scale  of 
immigrants  runs  from  the  pauper  or  the  diseased  alien, 
awaiting  deportation  on  Ellis  Island  in  New  York  Harbor, 
to  the  rich  Norwegian  or  German  owning  a  thousand-acre 
farm  in  North  Dakota,  and  to  the  millionaire  Swedish  lum- 
berman or  manufacturer  of  Wisconsin  or  Minnesota. 

For  more  than  half  a  century,  the  United  States  has 
been  almost  a  nation  of  immigrants,  a  mixture  of  races  in 
the  process  of  combination;  upon  the  exact  nature  of  this 
combination,  whether  it  take  the  form  of  absorption,  amal- 
gamation, fusion,  or  assimilation,  depends  future  political 
and  social  progress. 

The  writer  has  for  years  felt  a  profound  conviction  of 
the  vital  importance  of  this  whole  problem  of  the  alien,  and 
a  corresponding  belief  in  the  value  of  the  investigation  of 
each  cohort  in  the  national  forces.  Hence  this  attempt  at  a 
sympathetic  study  of  the  Scandinavian  element  in  Ameri- 

1Whelpley,  The  Problem  of  the  Immigrant,  i. 


10  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [240 

can  life  and  of  its  contributions  to  the  evolution  of  the 
Northern  Mississippi  Valley  during  the  last  sixty  years. 

In  such  a  study,  the  Norwegians,  Swedes,  and  Danes, 
like  all  other  citizens  of  foreign  birth,  must  be  judged  by 
the  character  and  preparation  which  best  fit  men  to  con- 
tribute to  the  permanent  progress  of  a  self-governing  peo- 
ple. What  are  the  signs  of  readiness  for  full  American- 
ization? The  fundamentals  are  manliness — Roman  viril- 
ity— ,  intelligence,  and  the  capacity  for  co-operation,  en- 
nobled by  "dignified  self-respect,  self-control,  and  that  self- 
assertion  and  jealousy  of  encroachment  which  marks  those 
who  know  their  rights  and  dare  maintain  them"  ;2  devotion 
to  law,  order,  and  justice;  and  a  ready  acquiescence  in  the 
will  of  the  majority  duly  expressed.3 

Such  qualities  in  America  have  been  the  especial  pos- 
session of  that  sub-race  of  the  Caucasian  stock  which  the 
later  ethnologists  call  -the  Baltic,  in  contradistinction  to 
the  co-ordinate  sub-races,  the  Alpine,  and  the  Mediterran- 
ean or  Ligurian.  This  Baltic  race  has  for  centuries  occu- 
pied the  British  Isles,  the  northern  plains  of  Germany,  and 
the  North  European  peninsulas,  being  found  in  its  purest 
state  in  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Scotland.  The  people  of  this 
sub-race,  asserts  the  writer  of  an  admirable  article  on  racial 
characteristics,  are  mentally  "enterprising  and  persevering, 
and  cheerfully  dedicate  most  of  their  time  and  thought  to 
work.  .  .  .  They  are  liberally  gifted  with  those  moral  in- 
stincts which  are  highly  favorable  to  the  creation  and 
growth  of  communities,  altho  not  always  so  favorable  to 
the  individual  who  possesses  them ;  they  are  altruistic,  fear- 
less, honest,  sincere.  They  love  order  and  cleanliness,  and 
attach  considerable  importance  to  the  dress  and  personal 
appearance  of  individuals."4  While  the  other  Caucasian 
sub-races  do  not  lack  these  qualities,  their  most  dominating 
characteristics  are  different;  for  example,  one  may 

2J.  R.  Commons,  "Racial    Composition    of    the    American    People," 
Chautauquan,  XXXVIII,  35. 

8R.  Mayo-Smith,  Emigration  and  Immigration. 

*G.  Michaud,  "What  shall  we  be?",  Century,  LXV,  685. 


241]  INTRODUCTION  11 

exemplify  the  artistic  or  the  idealistic  Side  of  human 
nature. 

As  related  to  the  progress  of  civilization  in  America, 
all  immigrants  fall  into  three  classes :  those  who  powerfully 
re-enforce  the  strength  and  virtue  of  the  nation,  those  who 
supplement  its  defects  with  desirable  elements,  and  those 
who  lower  its  standards  and  retard  its  advancement. 
Hence,  those  immigrants  will  be  presumably  the  most 
desirable  to  America  who  come  from  the  regions  where  the 
purest  Baltic  stock  now  exists,  that  is,  north  of  a  line  run- 
ning east  and  west  through  Brussels,  and  especially  in 
north-central  Germany  and  the  Scandinavian  peninsula. 

Measured  by  character  and  training,  the  Baltic  race 
in  America  stands  up  well  to  the  test,  not  only  in  the  for- 
eign-born alone,  but  in  the  second  and  third  generation 
born  on  American  soil.  If  generations  of  ignorance,  mental 
inertia,  social  depression,  political  passivity,  shiftlessness, 
and  improvidence  stretch  behind  the  immigrant,  if  his 
religion  be  chiefly  a  superstition  or  strongly  antagonistic 
to  the  principles  of  the  Republic,  and  if  he  be  physically 
inferior  and  long  inured  to  the  hardships  of  a  low  standard 
of  living,  just  so  far  is  he  an  undesirable  addition  to 
American  population.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  if  his  home- 
land show  a  very  low  percentage  of  illiteracy;  if  his  life 
has  been  saturated  with  the  ideas  of  thrift  and  small 
economies;  if  he  hold  himself  free  from  domination  by 
priest,  landlord,  or  king;  and  if  his  history  be  the  story 
of  a  sturdy  struggle  for  independence,  he  should  be  rated 
high  and  welcomed  accordingly,  for  it  is  of  such  stuff  that 
mighty  nations  are  made. 

The  student  of  Scandinavian  immigration  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  is  not  left  to  conjecture  in  his  endeavor  to 
estimate  the  probable  result  of  the  injection  into  American 
society  of  this  foreign-born  element.  Before  the  second 
generation  of  English  and  Dutch  settlers  in  America  in 
the  seventeenth  century  had  grown  to  manhood,  the 
Swedes  began  a  colony  upon  the  Delaware  River ;  and  their 
descendants  are  still  a  distinguishable  part  of  the  popula- 


12  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [242 

tion  of  the  lower  Delaware  valley.  This  beginning  of 
Swedish  immigration  to  America  is  particularly  instructive 
because  the  settlements  undertaken  in  the  period  of  the 
Thirty  Years  War  drew  their  recruits  from  the  same  classes 
of  Swedish  society  as  the  movements  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, and  developed  under  substantially  similar  conditions 
and  along  much  the  same  lines. 

The  Swede  of  the  seventeenth  century  and  the  Swede 
of  the  nineteenth  century  are  essentially  one  in  character, 
for  two  hundred  years  have  wrought  less  change  in  him 
than  in  his  cousins  of  Germany  and  England.  The  accounts 
of  Stockholm,  its  people  and  its  surroundings,  written  in 
the  early  seventeenth  century,  might  serve,  with  very  little 
modification,  to  describe  the  large  features  of  the  Sweden 
and  the  Swedes  of  today.  Great  progress  has  of  course  been 
made  in  two  centuries,  but  in  political  wisdom,  high  moral 
courage,  and  benevolent  purpose,  Gustavus  Adolphus  and 
his  advisers  were  distinctly  in  advance  of  the  first  two 
English  Stuarts  and  their  courts. 

Perhaps  no  better  illustration  of  this  difference  could 
be  found  than  in  the  plans  for  the  beginnings  of  the  colonies 
on  the  James  River  and  on  the  Delaware  River.  The 
scheme  for  a  colony  on  the  Delaware  was  originally  out- 
lined by  the  great  Gustavus  himself  in  1624,  but  sterner 
duties  took  his  energies;  and  after  the  fatal  blow  on  the 
field  of  Ltitzen,  it  devolved  on  his  daughter,  Queen  Chris- 
tina, and  her  faithful  minister,  Oxenstjerna,  to  carry 
out  his  plan  for  establishing  a  colony  which  was  to  be  "a 
blessing  to  the  common  man,"  a  place  for  "a  free  people 
with  wives,"  and  not  a  mere  commercial  speculation  or  a 
haven  for  aristocratic  adventurers  and  spendthrifts.5 

The  first  company  of  immigrants  arrived  in  1638,  and 
year  by  year  additions  were  received.  So  early  as  the  mid- 
dle of  the  seventeenth  century,  Sweden  had  a  touch  of  the 
"America  fever,"  and  when  an  expedition  left  Gothenburg 
in  1654  with  350  souls  on  board,  about  a  hundred  families 

9Argonauiica  Gustaviana,  3,  16. 


243]  INTRODUCTION  13 

were  left  behind  for  want  of  room.  Perhaps  only  the  trans- 
fer of  the  colony,  first  to  the  Dutch  and  then  to  the  English, 
prevented  the  Swedish  immigration  from  attaining  large 
proportions  two  and  a  half  centuries  ago.  The  Swedish 
flag  floated  over  New  Sweden  notwithstanding  the  protests 
of  both  the  Dutch  and  the  English,  until  the  conquest  of 
the  colony  by  Governor  Stuyvesant  in  1655,  and  then  it 
disappeared  from  the  map  of  America. 

In  spite  of  threats,  subjugation,  and  isolation,  the 
prosperity  of  the  early  colony  continued,  and  by  the  end 
of  the  seventeenth  century  it  numbered  nearly  a  thousand. 
No  injustice  in  dealing  with  the  Indians  provoked  a  mas- 
sacre, for  these  proteges  of  the  Swedish  crown,  before  Wil- 
liam Penn  was  born,  carefully  and  systematically  extin- 
guished by  purchase  the  Indian  titles  to  all  the  land  on 
which  they  settled.  Their  piety  and  loyalty  built  the  church 
and  fort  side  by  side,  and  long  after  they  became  subjects 
of  the  king  of  Great  Britain  they  continued  to  receive  their 
ministers  from  the  mother  church  in  Sweden.  In  fact, 
pastors  commissioned  from  Stockholm  did  not  cease  their 
ministrations  until  they  came  speaking  in  a  tongue  no 
longer  known  to  the  children  of  New  Sweden. 

This  Swedish  colony,  planted  thus  in  the  midst  of  larger 
English  settlements,  continued  for  many  generations  to 
add  its  portion  of  good  blood  and  good  brains  to  a  body  of 
colonists  in  the  New  World,  which  too  often  needed  sorely 
just  these  qualities.  The  Honorable  Thomas  F.  Bayard, 
who  lived  long  among  their  descendants,  wrote  in  1888: 
"I  make  bold  to  say  that  no  better  stock  has  been  contrib- 
uted (in  proportion  to  its  numbers)  towards  giving  a  solid 
basis  to  society  under  our  republican  forms,  than  these 
hardy,  honest,  industrious,  law-abiding,  God-fearing  Swe- 
dish settlers  on  the  banks  of  the  Christiana  in  Delaware. 
While  I  have  never  heard  of  a  very  rich  man  among  them, 
yet  I  have  never  heard  of  a  pauper.  I  cannot  recall  the 
name  of  a  statesman  or  a  distinguished  law-giver  among 
them,  nor  of  a  rogue  or  a  felon.  As  good  citizens  they 


H  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [244 

helped  to  form  what  Mr.  Lincoln  called  the  plain  people 
of  the  country, — and  I  have  lived  among  their  descendants 
and  know  that  their  civic  virtues  have  been  transmitted."6 
Their  thrift  and  comfort  and  sobriety  attracted  the  at- 
tention of  Thomas  Pascall,  one  of  the  Englishmen  of  Penn's 
first  colony,  who  wrote  in  January,  1683 :  "They  are  gen- 
erally very  ingenious  people,  live  well,  they  have  lived  here 
40  years,  and  have  lived  much  at  ease  having  great  plenty 
of  all  sorts  of  provisions,  but  they  were  but  ordinarily 
cloathed ;  but  since  the  English  came  they  have  gotten  fine 
cloathes,  and  are  going  proud."7  Penn  himself  declared: 
"They  have  fine  children  and  almost  every  house  full ;  rare 
to  find  one  of  them  without  three  or  four  boys  and  as  many 
girls ;  some  six,  seven  and  eight  sons.  And  I  must  do  them 
right — I  see  few  young  men  more  sober  and  industrious."8 

•Mattson,  Souvenir  of  the  25oth  Anniversary  of  the  First  Swedish 
Settlement  in  America  (1888),  44, 

"This  letter,  printed  as  a  broadside  in  England  about  1683,  was  fur- 
nished me  by  Mr.  George  Parker  Winship  of  the  Carter  Brown  Library 
of  Providence,  Rhode  Island. 

8Janney,  Life  of  William  Penn,  246-247. 


CHAPTER  II. 
SWEDES,  NORWEGIANS,,  AND  DANES 

The  common  use  of  the  term  Scandinavian  to  describe 
Swedes,  Norwegians,  and  Danes  in  a  broad  and  general 
way,  is  one  of  the  products  of  the  commingling  of  these 
three  peoples  on  the  American  side  of  the  Atlantic.  The 
word  really  fits  even  more  loosely  than  does  the  word  Brit- 
ish to  indicate  the  English,  Welsh  and  Scotch.  It  was 
applied  early  in  the  history  of  the  settlements  in  Wisconsin 
and  Illinois,  to  groups  which  comprised  both  Norwegians 
and  Danes  on  the  one  hand,  or  Norwegians  and  Swedes  on 
the  other  hand,  wrhen  no  one  of  the  three  nationalities  was 
strong  enough  to  maintain  itself  separately,  and  when  the 
members  of  one  were  inclined,  in  an  outburst  of  latent 
pride  of  nationality,  not  to  say  conceit  of  assumed  superior- 
ity, to  resent  being  called  by  one  of  the  other  names;  for 
example,  when  a  Norwegian  objected  to  being  taken  for  a 
Swede.  Thus  the  Scandinavian  Synod  of  the  Evangelical 
Lutheran  Church,  organized  in  1860,  included  both  Norwe- 
gians and  Danes ;  ten  years  later  the  name  was  changed  to 
the  Norwegian-Danish  Conference;  and  in  1884  the  differ- 
entiation was  carried  further,  and  the  Danes  formed  a  new 
Danish  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church  Association,  supple- 
menting the  Danish  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church  in 
America,  which  dated  back  to  1871. 

Vigorous  protests  were  made  from  time  to  time  against 
the  use  of  "Skandinavianv  or  "Skandinav."  "Shall  we 
Norwegians  let  the  Danes  persist  in  calling  us  Scandin- 
avians?" wrote  "Anti-Skandinavian"  to  the  leading  Amer- 
ican Norwegian  weekly  of  1870.1  He  also  quoted  the  sar- 
castic words  of  Ole  Bull :  "Scandinavia,  gentlemen, — may 
I  ask  where  that  land  lies?  It  is  not  found  in  my  geo- 

lF<rdr eland et  og  Emigranten,  May  12,  1870:     "Skulle  vi  Norske  lade 
de  Danske  fremture  i  at  kalde  os  Skandinaver?" 

15 


16  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [246 

graphy ;  does  it  lie  perhaps  in  the  moon?"2  But  the  use  and 
acceptability  of  the  word  steadily  grew;  the  great  daily 
paper  in  Chicago  took  the  name  Skandinaven;  in  1889,  the 
editor  of  The  North  declared:  "The  term  has  become  a 
household  word  .  .  .  universally  understood  in  the  sense  in 
which  we  here  use  it  (to  designate  the  three  nationali- 
ties)."3 

Ole  Bull  was,  of  course,  right  in  saying  that  there  is  no 
Scandinavian  language,  no  Scandinavian  nation;  but  the 
ordinary  reader  or  student  does  not  recognize  clearly  that 
Sweden,  Norway  and  Denmark  have  different  spoken 
languages  (though  the  Danish  and  Norwegian  printed 
language  is  one),  different  traditions,  as  well  as  different 
governments.  Almost  while  these  words  are  being  written, 
the  coronation  ceremony  in  the  ancient  cathedral  at 
Throndhjem  completes  the  process  by  which  Norway  is 
severed  entirely  from  Sweden  and  again  assumes  among  the 
powers  of  earth  that  "separate  and  equal  station  to  which 
the  laws  of  Nature  and  of  Nature's  God  entitle  them." 

The  physique  and  characteristics  of  the  three  Scan- 
dinavian peoples  have  been  profoundly  affected  by  the  phys- 
ical features  of  the  northern  peninsulas;  the  mountains, 
fjords,  and  extensive  coast  lines  of  Norway,  the  level 
stretches,  lakes,  and  regular  coast  of  Sweden,  and  the  low, 
sandy  islands  of  Denmark  find  a  counterpart  in. the  varying 
types  of  men  and  women  of  those  countries.  The  occupa- 
tions which  necessarily  grew  out  of  these  differences  of  sur- 
face and  soil  tended  to  give  to  all  a  strong,  sturdy,  hardy 
body ;  farming  naturally  claims  by  far  the  largest  percent- 
age, though  great  numbers  of  the  men  yield  to  the  call  of  the 
sea.  Both  Norway  and  Sweden  have  large  lumbering  inter- 
ests, while  Norway  leads  in  fishing  industries,  Sweden  in 
mining,  and  Denmark  in  dairying. 

Nature  is  no  spendthrift  in  any  part  of  the  Scandi- 
navian peninsulas ;  small  economies  are  the  alphabet  of  her 

2"Skandinavien,  mine  Herrer,  tor  jeg  sporge,  hvor  det  Land  ligger? 
Det  findes  ikke  i  min  Geografi ;  ligger  det  maaske  i  Maanen?"  Ole  Bull, 
Fxdrelandet  og  Emigranten,  May  12,  1870. 

*The  North,  June  12,  1889. 


247]  SWEDES,,  NORWEGIANS,  AND  DANES  17 

teaching,  and  her  lessons  once  learned  are  rarely  forgotten. 
Her  children  of  the  North,  therefore,  down  to  the  stolidest 
laborer,  mountaineer,  and  fisherman,  are  generally  indus- 
trious and  frugal,  and  when  they  migrate  to  the  American 
West,  to  enter  upon  the  work  of  pioneering,  with  its  stern 
requirements  of  endurance,  patience,  persistent  endeavor, 
and  thrift,  they  start  out  in  the  new  life  with  decided  tem- 
peramental advantages  over  most  other  immigrants,  and 
even  over  most  native-born  Americans. 

Other  characteristics  common  to  these  three  peoples 
distinguish  them  strikingly  from  the  South  European. 
From  their  Viking  ancestors  they  have  inherited  a  love  for 
adventure,  a  courage  in  facing  the  possibilities  of  the  fu- 
ture. Their  hatred  of  slavery,  and  their  clear,  high  ideas 
of  personal  and  political  freedom,  are  strongly  marked, 
and  their  peasantry  is  ranked  highest  on  the  continent.4 
Their  adaptability  to  changes  of  clime,  of  conditions,  of  cir- 
cumstance, has  been  remarkably  demonstrated  over  and 
over  again,  in  Normandy  in  the  llth  century,  in  Sicily  in 
the  12th,  and  in  America  in  the  19th;  yet  it  has  not  degen- 
erated into  a  facile  yielding  to  moods  and  whims  even  under 
the  rapid  changes  of  New  World  society. 

The  typical  Swede  is  aristocratic,  fond  of  dignities, 
assertive :  he  is  polite,  vivacious,  and  bound  to  have  a  jolly 
lime  without  troubling  too  much  about  the  far  future.  Yet 
lie  is  not  afraid  of  hard  work;  he  is  persistent,  ofttimes 
brilliant,  and  capable  of  great  energy  and  endurance.  He 
is  notably  fond  of  music,  especially  the  singing  of  choruses 
and  the  opera,  and  the  poetry  of  Bellman  and  the  epics 
of  Tegner  belong  to  the  great  literature  of  the  world. 

The  Norwegian  is  above  all  democratic.  He  is  simple, 
serious,  intense,  severe  even  to  bluntness,  often  radical  and 
visionary,  and  with  a  tendency  to  disputatiousness.3  There 
is  an  unmeasured  quantity  of  passion  and  imagination  in 

4N.  S.  Shaler,  "European  Peasants  as  Immigrants,"  Atlantic,  LXXI, 
649- 

5N.  P.  Haugen  comments  on  the  good  and  bad  features  of  this  ten- 
dency in  his  Norway  Day  speech  at  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition. 
Skandinaven,  May  24,  1893. 


18  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [248 

him,  as  there  are  unmeasured  stores  of  power  and  beauty 
in  the  snows  of  his  mountains  and  the  waters  of  his  coast. 
He  has  the  capacity  for  high  and  strenuous  endeavor,  even 
verging  on  the  turbulent,  but  he  rarely  has  developed  the 
qualities  of  a  great  leader.  Like  the  Swede,  the  Norwegian 
is  fond  of  music,  but  it  is  of  a  different  sort.  Both  in  his 
music  and  in  his  literature,  the  dramatic  element  is  strong; 
no  names  in  the  realm  of  literature  of  the  last  generation 
stand  higher  than  those  of  Ibsen  and  Bjornson,  who  are 
first  cosmopolitan  and  then  Norwegian. 

The  Dane  is  the  Southerner  of  the  Scandinavians,  but 
still  a  conservative.  He  is  gay,  but  not  to  excess;  the 
healthiness  and  jollity  of  a  Copenhagen  crowd  are  things  to 
covet.  He  is  pre-eminently  a  small  farmer  or  trader,  hon- 
est and  persevering,  ready  and  easy-going,  and  altho  not 
given  to  great  risks,  he  is  quick  to  see  a  bargain  and  shrewd 
in  making  it.  Of  self-confidence  and  enterprise  he  mani- 
fests a  decided  lack.6  His  country  is  small,  open  on  all 
sides,  and  near  to  great  Powers;  his  interests,  therefore, 
have  led  him  out  from  his  peninsula  and  islands,  and  for- 
eign influences  have  more  affected  him  than  they  have  his 
neighbors  across  the  Sound  and  the  Skager  Rack.  His  best 
work  in  literature  and  art  has  been  done  under  strong 
Romantic  and  classic  impulses  from  the  South. 

Such  being  the  qualities  of  the  peoples  of  Sweden, 
Denmark  and  Norway,  the  conditions  of  life  and  society  in 
those  countries  in  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century 
seem  on  close  examination  quite  unlikely  to  produce  a 
great  emigration,  in  comparison  with  conditions  in  other 
countries  from  which  large  numbers  of  men  and  women 
migrated  to  America.  There  were  no  great  social,  econom- 
ic, or  political  upheavals  sufficient  to  cause  the  exodus  of 
any  class ;  religious  intolerance  and  persecution  were,  with 
few  minor  exceptions,  neither  active  nor  severe.  The 
Napoleonic  wars  did  not  depopulate  these  northern  lands, 
nor  did  they,  like  their  sister  nations  to  the  south,  suffer 

•Borchner,  Danish  Life  in  Town  and  Country,  3-6;  Bille,  History  of 
the  Danes  in  America,  i,  7,  8. 


249]  SWEDES,  NORWEGIANS,  AND  DANES  19 

seriously  from  the  commercial  restrictions  of  the  Emperor 
of  the  French.  Militarism  did  not  crush  them  with  its 
weight  of  lead  and  steel  and  its  terrible  waste  of  productive 
energy.  Political  oppression  and  proscription,  so  marked 
in  the  affairs  of  central  and  western  European  states  down 
to  1850,  were  not  features  of  the  history  of  Norway, 
Sweden  or  Denmark.  Though  Norway  protested  in  1814 
in  no  uncertain  terms  against  the  union  with  Sweden  in 
a  dual  monarchy,  she  was,  under  the  constitution  of  that 
year,  one  of  the  freest  nations  of  Europe,  "  a  free,  indi- 
vidual, indivisible  kingdom."  In  Sweden  before  1840,  one 
of  the  chief  restrictions  on  the  individual  was  potential 
rather  than  actual :  a  man  who  wished  to  leave  the  kingdom 
must  have  a  passport  from  the  king,  for  which  he  had  to 
pay  300  kroner  (about  |81).  He  would  also  be  under  the 
close  supervision  of  the  state  church,  to  which  he  was 
expected  to  belong. 

There  were,  however,  conditions  in  the  home-lands 
as  well  as  in  America,  which  impelled  immigration.  Any- 
one who  has  travelled  over  the  fertile  prairies  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi valley  and  then  through  Norway  or  Sweden,  will 
often  wonder  that  so  many  people  have  been  content  to 
remain  so  long  in  the  older  Scandinavia.  In  Norway  there 
were  in  1910,  in  round  numbers,  2,390,000  people  on  an 
area  of  124,000  square  miles.7  Of  this  population,  about 
425,000  were  gathered  in  the  larger  towns,  and  250,000 
were  in  the  smaller  towns,  making  a  total  urban  population 
of  29%,  over  against  21%  twenty  years  before.  The  re- 
mainder were  scattered  over  the  vast  mountainous  country 
or  along  the  coast-line  of  three  thousand  miles.8  Thou- 
sands of  fishermen's  huts  are  grappled  barnacle-like  to  the 
rocks,  while  behind  them  along  a  trickling  thread  of  water 
stretches  a  precious  hand-breadth  of  soil.  The  greater 
part  of  the  interior  is  one  wide  furrowed  plateau,  in  whose 
hollows,  by  lakes  and  streams,  thrifty  farmers  skilfully 

7 Statesman's  Y ear-Book,  1914,  1141  ff. 

8In  1880,  20%  lived  in  towns ;  in  1800,  23.7%  lived  in  towns,  and  76.3% 
in  the  rural  districts.  Norway  (English  edition  of  the  official  volume 
prepared  for  the  Paris  Exhibition  of  1900),  90. 


20  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [250 

utilize  their  few  square  yards  of  tillable  land  and  pasture 
their  cattle  on  the  steep  slopes.  Save  around  Lake  Mjosen, 
the  Leir,  Vos,  and  Throndhjem,  there  can  scarcely  be  found 
in  all  Norway  anything  like  a  broad  rich  meadow.  The 
farm  products  are  almost  literally  mined  from  the  rocks. 
"It  is  by  dogged,  persistent,  indomitable  toil  and  endur- 
ance, backed  up  in  some  cases  by  irrepressible  daring,  that 
the  Norwegian  peasant  and  fisher-folk — three-fourths  of 
the  population — carry  on  with  any  show  of  success  their 
struggle  against  iron  nature."9  Yet  in  spite  of  such  adverse 
conditions,  these  people  have  ever  clung  with  passionate 
tenacity  to  their  mountainous  storm-beaten  Norway,  and 
by  it  have  been  made  brave  without  bitterness,  hardy  with- 
out harshness,  strong  yet  tender. 

In  Sweden  the  physical  conditions  are  decidedly  dif- 
ferent. The  area  of  172,900  square  miles  supports  a  popu- 
lation of  5,600,000  (1912),  of  whom  50%  dwell  in  cities  of 
which  there  are  now  thirty  with  more  than  10,000, 
Stockholm  leading  with  350,000.  The  urban  population 
increased  166%  between  1871  and  1912.10  There  are  few 
lofty  mountains  and  no  jagged  peaks,  majestically  domi- 
nating the  outlook;  the  crag-set  fjords  are  replaced  by 
gentler  bays  and  sounds  sprinkled  with  beautiful  islands; 
in  some  parts  of  the  country,  as  in  Wermland  and  Smaa- 
land,  are  low  and  marshy  sections,  where,  according  to 
legend,  the  Lord  forgot  to  separate  the  land  and  water. 
Agricultural  conditions  are  less  hard  and  means  of  com- 
munication are  better  than  in  Norway;  closer  relations 
exist  between  provinces  and  between  parishes;  information 
is  more  readily  diffused,  and  gatherings  of  considerable  size 
are  held  without  particular  difficulty. 

Denmark  more  closely  resembles  Sweden  than  Nor- 
way, and  is  in  still  better  touch  with  the  larger  world 
than  either  of  the  others.  With  an  area  of  about  15,000 
square  miles, — Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  and  Connec- 

9Wm.  Archer,  "Norway  Today,"  Fortnightly  Rev.,  XLIV,  415. 
loStatesman's  Year-Book,  1914,  1316.    The  increase  of  urban  popula- 
tion was  five  times  the  increase  of  the  kingdom. 


251]  SWEDES,  NORWEGIANS,  AND  DANES  21 

ticut,  combined — it  held  in  1911  a  population  of  2,775,000. 
Copenhagen  and  its  suburbs  had  a  population  of  560,000. 
The  urban  population  was  26%.  Unlike  the  other  two, 
Denmark  has  severaj  important  colonies  in  other  parts  of 
the  world.11 

In  all  three  countries,  as  in  the  rest  of  Europe, 
changes  in  commercial,  industrial,  social,  legal,  and  relig- 
ious matters  were  sure  to  be  slow.  The  tenure  and  succes- 
sion in  lands,  the  limited  market  for  labor,  the  relatively 
small  opportunity  for  initiative,  especially  for  the  younger 
members  of  considerable  families, — all  of  these  conditions 
with  the  characteristics  already  described,  lent  added  at- 
tractiveness to  the  call  of  the  American  West. 

^Statesman's  P 'ear-Book,  1914,  789  ff. 


CHAPTER  III. 
EARLY  NORWEGIAN  IMMIGRATION. 

"Arrived  last  evening"  (October  9,  1825). 

"Danish  Sloop   Restoration,  Holland,  98  days  from 
Norway,  via  Long  Island  Sound,  with  iron  to  Boor- 
man  and  Johnson,  52  passengers."1 
"The  vessel  is  very  small,  measuring,  as  we  under- 
stand, only  about  360  Norwegian  lasts,  or  45  American 
tons,  and  brought  46  passengers,    male    and    female,  all 
bound  for  Ontario  County,  where  an  agent  who  came  over 
sometime  since,  purchased  a  tract  of  land."2 

These  ordinary  shipping  notices  in  the  newspapers 
of  New  York  City,  and  several  other  similar  paragraphs, 
are  the  first  entries  in  the  chronicles  of  the  newer  Scandi- 
navian immigration  to  the  United  States.  From  the  ces- 
sation of  Swedish  immigration  in  the  seventeenth  century 
down  to  1825,  no  considerable  companies  made  the  long 
journey  from  the  Northlands  to  America,  tho  adventur- 
ous fellows  in  twos  and  threes  came  now  and  then,  men 
who  misliked  the  humdrum  life  in  the  old  parishes,  with  its 
narrow  opportunity  and  outlook,  men  who  found  the  sea 
the  only  highway  to  novelty  and  a  possible  fortune.3  Now, 
at  last,  the  coming  of  a  company  of  some  size,  from  Nor- 
way, adding  one  more  to  the  lengthening  list  of  nation- 
alities which  contributed  to  the  complex  population  of 
the  United  States,  attracted  more  than  passing  attention.4 

1The  New  York  Evening  Post,  Oct.  10,  1825. 

2The  New  York  Daily  Advertiser,  Oct.  12,  1825. 

interview  with  Capt.  O.  C.  Lange  (who  reached  America  in  1824) 
in  Chicago,  1890;  Norelius,  Svenskarnes  Historic,  i. 

*Niles>  Register,  XXIX.,  115.  Several  extended  quotations  from 
newspapers  in  New  York,  Boston,  and  Baltimore,  for  the  month  of  Octo- 
ber, 1825,  relating  to  this  company  of  the  sloop  "Restoration",  indicating 
the  interest  created  by  its  coming,  are  printed  in  Anderson,  Norwegian 
Immigration,  69-76. 

22 


253]  EARLY   NORWEGIAN   IMMIGRATION  23 

That  the  sloop  was  not  Danish,  and  that  there  is  some  dis- 
crepancy in  the  number  of  passengers — (and  crew?)  — 
and  in  the  number  of  days  in  the  voyage,  are  minor  mat- 
ters and  easily  accounted  for;  the  New  Yorker  of  1825 
could  hardly  be  expected  to  distinguish  clearly  between 
Danes  and  Norwegians,  when  the  people  of  the  Northwest 
at  the  present  time  apply  the  name  Swede  indiscrimin- 
ately to  Swedes,  Danes,  Norwegians,  Finns,  and  Icelanders. 
But  back  of  the  arrival  of  this  little  sloopful  of  Nor- 
wegians, is  a  story  of  motive,  organization,  and  movement, 
more  or  less  characteristic  of  Scandinavian  immigration 
during  the  next  two  generations.  The  two  main  elements 
are:  conditions  in  Norway  and  the  United  States,  and  the 
personal  activities  of  one  of  the  adventurous  fellows  al- 
ready referred  to. 

In  the  region  about  Stavanger,  in  southwestern  Nor- 
way, in  1825,  there  had  been  for  some  time  a  feeling  of 
discontent  with  the  religious  conditions  of  the  country, 
and  a  tendency  to  formal  dissent  from  the  established 
church.  The  direction  of  this  tendency  and  the  definition 
of  the  movement  were  vitally  influenced  by  certain  zealous 
and  philanthropic  Quaker  missionaries  from  England. 
Stephen  Grellet  and  William  Allen,  who  visited  Norway  in 
1818.  Grellet  was  a  French  nobleman  who  sought  refuge 
in  the  United  States  during  the  French  Revolution,  and 
there  united  himself  with  the  Quakers  or  Friends.  After 
residing  in  America  for  twelve  years,  he  began  making 
tours  through  Europe  to  propagate  Quaker  ideas,  even 
obtaining  an  interview  with  the  Pope,  which  he  describes 
in  his  diary.  The  visit  to  Norway  was  in  furtherance  of 
his  general  plan.  While  his  account  of  his  stay  in  Norway 
does  not  make  any  mention  of  America,  it  is  impossible  to 
believe  that  no  reference  to  America  and  to  the  conditions 
of  the  Friends  in  that  part  of  the  world,  where  he  himself 
found  refuge,  crept  into  the  conferences  which  he  held 
around  Stavanger,  and  that  no  seeds  of  desire  to  seek  the 
New  World  were  sown  in  the  slow-moving  minds  of  the 
Norwegian  peasants  whom  he  met.5 

'Grellet,  Memoirs,  I,  321  ff. 


24  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [254 

As  dissenters  from  the  established  church,  these  Quak- 
ers were  continually  subject  to  actual  or  threatened  pains 
and  penalties,  in  addition  to  those  troubles  which  might 
arise  from  their  refusal  to  take  oaths  and  to  render  mili- 
tary service.  Their  children  and  those  of  other  dissenters 
must  be  baptised  and  confirmed  in  the  Lutheran  Church; 
they  must  themselves  attend  its  services  and  pay  taxes  for 
its  support,  or  suffer  fines  or  other  punishment  for  failing 
so  to  do.  Tho  prosecutions,  or  persecutions,  were  really 
few  before  1830,  an  episode  now  and  then  showed  the  dis- 
senters what  might  be  in  store  for  them  if  they  persisted, 
as  when  one  of  the  Quakers  was  arrested  in  1821  for  bury- 
ing his  children  in  unconsecrated  ground,  and  fined  five 
specie  dollars  a  day  until  he  re-bury  them  in  consecrated 
ground,  and  agree  to  follow  the  outward  ceremonies  and 
customs  of  the  state  church.6  Two  years  before  one  of  the 
Friends  wrote:  "There  are  no  laws  yet  made  in  favor  of 
Friends,  so  that  those  who  stand  firm  in  their  principles 
act  contrary  to  the  laws  of  the  country.  Friends  must  be 
resigned  to  take  the  consequences."7  With  signs  of  perse- 
cution, with  an  increase  of  discontent,  and  with  the  leader- 
ship of  a  man  possessed  of  first-hand  knowledge  about  the 
United  States,  it  is  not  surprising  that  emigration  was 
decided  upon. 

Kleng  Peerson,  called  also  Kleng  Pederson  and  Person 
Hesthammer,  was  a  man  of  dubious  character,  who  has 
been  variously  described.  One  has  called  him  the  "Father 
of  the  Newer  Norwegian  Immigration"  and  as  such  entitled 
to  a  chapter  by  himself;  another  has  written  him  down 
as  a  tramp.8  A  softer  characterization,  however,  makes  of 


•Richardson,  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Society  of  Friends  in  Norway, 

37- 

"'Ibid.,  23. 

8R.  B.  Anderson,  "En  Liden  Indledning"  in  the  series  of  articles  "Bid- 
rag  til  vore  Settlementers  og  Menigheders  Historic,"  Amerika,  April  4, 
1894.  Bothne,  Kort  Udsigt  over  det  Lutherske  Kirkearbeide  bladnt  Nor- 
mandene  i  Amerika,  822. 


255]  EARLY   NORWEGIAN   IMMIGRATION  25 

him  a  "Viking  who  was  born  some  centuries  after  the 
Viking  period."9  He  appears  to  have  been  a  sort  of 
Quaker,  either  from  conscience  or  convenience.  His  leav- 
ing his  home  parish  of  Skjold  near  Stavanger,  and  his 
emigration  to  the  United  States  in  1821  in  company  with 
another  Norwegian,  are  attributed  to  motives  ranging  from 
a  commission  from  the  Quakers  to  find  a  refuge  for  them  in 
America,  to  a  desire  to  escape  the  rich  old  widow  whom  he 
married,  and  who  was  tired  of  supporting  him  in  idle- 
ness.10 Certain  it  is  that  upon  his  return  to  Norway  in 
1824,  after  three  years  of  experience  in  the  New  World,  the 
sentiment  favoring  emigration  from  Stavanger  soon  crys- 
tallized. 

By  midsummer  of  1825  a  company  of  fifty-two  persons, 
mostly  Quakers  from  the  parish  of  Skjold,  was  ready  to 
journey  to  America.  They  purchased  a  sloop  and  a  small 
cargo  of  iron  which  would  serve  as  ballast  and  which  might 
bring  them  profit  in  New  York,  tho  this  was  probably  a 
secondary  matter.11  On  the  4th  of  July,  1825,  they  set  sail 
from  Stavanger,  and  after  a  somewhat  circuitous  voyage  of 
fourteen  weeks,  which  was  not  very  long,  as  such  voyages 
went,  they  made  their  landing  in  New  York,  October  9th, 
numbering  fifty-three  instead  of  fifty-two,  for  a  daughter 
was  born  to  Lars  Larson  on  shipboard.12  This  landing  of 
the  "Sloop  Folk"  of  the  "Restoration,"  whose  story  is  a 
favorite  and  oft-told  one  with  the  older  Norwegian  immi- 
grants, is  occasionally  likened  to  the  Landing  of  the  Pil- 
grim Fathers  who  fled  to  a  wilderness  to  escape  persecution 
and  to  seek  social  and  religious  freedom;  but  on  close 
examination  the  comparison  breaks  down  at  almost  every 
point, — motive,  objective,  method  and  result.13 

9O.  N.  Nelson,  "Bemerkning  til  Prof.  Andersons  Indledning",  Amer- 
ika,  May  2,  1894. 

10Nelson,  History  of  the  Scandinavians,  I,  134  B-C. 

11Langeland,  Nordnuzndene  i  Amerika,  1 1. 

12C.  A.  Thingvold  gives  a  list  of  the  names  of  the  "Sloop  Folk," 
save  four,  which  he  obtained  from  one  of  the  survivors,  in  "The  First 
Norwegian  Immigration  to  America,"  The  North,  Aug.  10,  1892. 

13J.  B.  Wist,  Den  Norske  Invandring  til  1850,  published  about  1890, 
ventures  to  question  seriously  whether  such  a  company  ever  came  to  the 


26  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [256 

In  New  York  the  captain  and  mate  of  the  "Restora- 
tion" were  arrested  for  having  more  passengers  than  the 
Federal  law  allowed — two  passengers  to  each  five  tons  of 
the  vessel.  Having  an  excess  of  twenty,  the  sloop  was 
legally  forfeited  to  the  United  States.14  However,  for  some 
unknown  reason,  the  offenders  were  released  and  allowed 
to  dispose  of  their  cargo.  The  original  cost  of  ship  and 
cargo  appears  to  have  been  about  $1950,  but  both  were  sold 
for  $400.  This  inadequate  sum  was  supplemented  by  the 
generosity  of  the  Quakers  of  New  York,  whose  contribu- 
tions and  assistance  enabled  the  "Sloop  Folk"  to  proceed 
inland  to  Western  New  York. 

They  took  up  land  in  Kendall  and  Orleans  County  on 
the  shores  of  Lake  Ontario,  about  thirty-five  miles  north- 
east of  the  new  town  of  Rochester  in  which  two  of  the  fam- 
ilies decided  to  remain.  The  price  of  the  land  was  $5  per 
acre,  and  each  man  was  to  take  about  40  acres ;  but  as  they 
were  without  cash,  they  agreed  to  pay  for  their  farms  in 
ten  annual  instalments.  The  reasons  for  selecting  this 
region  are  not  difficult  to  surmise,  tho  there  is  no  direct 
proof  of  the  motive.  The  country  around  Rochester  was, 
in  1825,  in  the  midst  of  a  sort  of  Western  "boom" ;  the  Erie 
Canal  was  just  finished,  and  the  prospects  of  Rochester 
were  very  promising.15  Its  population  grew  quite  marvel- 
ously ;  in  September,  1822,  it  was  2700 ;  in  February,  1825, 
4274;  and  in  December  of  the  same  year,  nearly  8,000.16 

The  first  five  years  of  the  little  colony  were  full  of 
hardships  and  suffering.  It  was  November  of  1825  when 
they  reached  their  destination ;  the  country  was  all  new  and 
thinly  settled;  their  own  land  was  wild  and  could  be  cleared 

United  Stai'es!  His  reason  is  that  the  clearance  records  of  Stavanger 
show  no  such  name  as  the  "Restauration,"  and  American  statistics  give 
the  total  Scandinavian  immigration  as  35,  of  whom  14  are  credited  to 
Norway. 

"Statutes  of  the  United  States,  1819,  Act  of  March  2. 

""Rochester  is  celebrated  all  over  the  Union  as  presenting  one  of 
the  most  striking  instances  of  rapid  increase  in  size  and  population,  of 
which   the  country  affords  an   example."     Capt.   Basil   Hall,    Travels  in 
North  America,  I,  153. 
.,  I,  155- 


257]  EARLY  NORWEGIAN  IMMIGRATION  27 

only  with  difficulty;  and  nothing  could  be  grown  upon  it 
before  the  following  summer.  Just  one  man  among  them, 
Lars  Larson,  understood  any  English.  By  united  efforts 
several  families  built  a  log-house,  where  the  winter  was 
spent  in  a  most  crowded  condition,  Avorse  even  than  the 
three  months  in  the  close  quarters  of  the  "Restoration". 
The  only  employment  by  which  they  could  earn  anything 
was  threshing  with  a  flail  in  the  primitive  fashion  of  the 
time,  and  the  wages  consisted  of  the  eleventh  bushel 
threshed.  With  these  scanty  earnings  and  the  help  of 
kindly  neighbors,  they  passed  the  dismal  winter  in  a 
strange  land.  "They  often  suffered  great  need,  and  wished 
themselves  back  in  Norway,  but  they  saw  no  possibility  of 
reaching  Norway  without  sacrificing  the  last  mite  of  their 
property,  and  they  would  not  return  as  beggars."17  But  at 
length  time,  patience,  and  their  own  strength  and  diligence 
gave  them  a  foothold.  The  land  was  cleared  and  produced 
enough  to  support  them.  A  five  years'  apprenticeship  made 
them  masters  of  the  situation;  and  when  at  last  they  had 
the  means  to  return  to  the  parish  of  Skjold,  the  desire  had 
gradually  faded  out.  Instead  of  re-migration,  they  were 
persuading  others  to  join  them  in  the  New  World. 

But  the  New  Norway,  or  the  New  Scandinavia,  was 
not  to  be  located  in  the  Middle  Atlantic  States,  though  a 
beginning  was  made  in  Delaware  and  in  New  York.  Land 
was  too  dear  around  the  older  settlements  even  at  $5  per 
acre;  the  promised  land  was  shifted  to  northern  Indiana 
and  northern  Illinois,  where  fine  prairie  tracts  which 
needed  no  clearing  could  be  had  for  $1.25  per  acre  and 
upwards.  And  into  these  newer  regions  went  the  settler 
and  the  land  speculator,  sometimes  in  one  and  the  same 
person.  Schemes  for  internal  improvement  sprouted  on 
every  side,  and  canal-building  was  much  discussed  as  the 
best  means  of  providing  cheap  transportation.18  One  of 

17Langeland,  Nordmandene  i  Amerika,  15. 

18Ackerman,  Early  Illinois  Railroads  (No.  23,  Fergus  Hist.  Ser.),  19, 
quoting  an  editorial  form  the  Sanganto  Journal,  Oct.  31,  1835:  "We 
rejoice  to  witness  the  spirit  of  internal  improvement  now  manifesting 
itself  in  every  part  of  Illinois." 


28  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [258 

these  projects  was  for  a  canal  from  Lake  Michigan  to  the 
Illinois  River,  for  which  a  land  grant  was  made  in  1827. 
This  canal  would  bring  great  prosperity  to  northern  Illi- 
nois, it  was  argued,  just  as  the  Erie  Canal  had  developed 
central  and  western  New  York ;  the  price  of  land  would  go 
up,  markets  would  be  accessible,  and  speculator  and  farmer 
would  reap  rich  rewards. 

Nor  was  this  argument  based  entirely  on  theory,  for 
halfway  to  the  East,  in  Indiana,  this  progressive  realization 
was  in  full  blast.  Harriet  Martineau  travelled  through  this 
part  of  the  West  in  1836,  and  noted  with  the  eye  of  an 
acute  and  experienced  observer,  the  rapid  rise  in  values  of 
farms.  She  estimated  that  a  settler,  judiciously  selecting 
his  land  in  the  Northwest,  would  find  it  doubled  in  a  single 
year,  and  cites  the  case  of  a  farmer  near  LaPorte,  Indiana, 
whose  800  acres,  costing  him  $1.25  per  acre  three  years 
before,  had  become  worth  $40  per  acre — probably  not  a 
unique  example  of  prosperity.19  With  these  visions  before 
them,  many  men  moved  from  western  New  York,  and  along 
the  line  of  the  proposed  canal  in  Illinois  grew  up  hamlets 
bearing  the  names  familiar  along  the  great  Erie  Canal, — 
Troy,  Seneca,  Utica,  and  Lockport. 

Among  those  attracted  thither,  was  Kleng  Peerson, 
who  again  served,  perhaps  without  deliberate  planning,  as 
a  scout  for  his  Quaker  friends.20  On  his  return  to  the 
Orleans  County  settlers,  he  convinced  them  that  a  better 
future  would  open  to  them  in  Illinois,  and  in  the  spring  of 
1834  some  of  the  families  moved  into  the  West  and  began 
the  so-called  Fox  River  settlement  in  the  town  of  Mission 
near  Ottawa,  La  Salle  County,  Illinois.  By  1836  nearly 
all  the  Norwegians  of  the  New  York  colony  had  removed 
to  the  West,  and  several  tracts  of  land  were  taken  up  in  the 
towns  of  Mission,  Miller,  and  Rutland.  The  sections  lo- 
cated seem  to  have  been  unsurveyed  at  the  time  of  the  first 
settlement,  for  no  purchases  are  recorded  until  1835.21 

19Martineau,  Society  in  America,  I,  247,  259,  336. 
20"I  have  complete  evidence  that  he  visited  La  Salle  County,  Illinois, 
as  early  as  1833."    Anderson,  Norwegian  Immigration,  172. 
21  Ibid.,  174,  1/6  ff. 


259]  EARLY   NORWEGIAN    IMMIGRATION  29 

Henceforth  most  of  the  immigration  from  Norway  was 
turned  toward  the  prairie  country,  and  whole  companies 
of  prospective  settlers  after  1836  went  directly  to  the  Fox 
River  nucleus,  for  the  region  thereabouts  had  the  double 
advantage  of  being  at  once  comparatively  easy  of  access 
and  in  the  most  fertile  and  promising  region  in  which  gov- 
ernment land  could  be  had  at  the  minimum  price. 

In  its  new  location,  the  twice  transplanted  colony  of 
"Sloop  Folk"  was  reasonably  prosperous  from  the  start, 
tho  the  panic  of  1837  made  impossible  any  realization 
of  Miss  Martineau's  roseate  estimate  of  probable  profits. 
No  further  move  of  the  original  immigrants  was  made, 
and  the  Fox  River  Valley  is  still  occupied  by  the  well-to-do 
descendants  of  the  Norwegian  settlers  of  the  thirties. 

As  a  preliminary  to  further  immigration  from  the 
three  countries  of  Northern  Europe,  a  definite  knowledge 
of  America  and  its  opportunities  must  be  developed  among 
the  peasants,  and  a  desire  to  remove  themselves  thither 
must  be  awakened  and  stimulated.  To  whole  communi- 
ties in  Norway,  made  up  of  simple,  circumscribed  people, 
America  about  1835  was  an  undiscovered  country,  or  at 
best  a  far-off  land  from  which  no  traveller  had  ever  come, 
and  from  which  no  letters  were  received;  the  name  itself, 
if  known  at  all,  was  a  recent  addition  to  their  vocabulary. 
Ole  Nattestad,  one  of  the  early  immigrants,  who  was 
decently  educated  for  his  time  and  more  experienced  in 
the  world  than  the  majority  of  his  neighbors,  relates  how 
he  first  heard  of  America  in  1836,  when  he  was  a  man 
thirty  years  old.22 

The  leavening  process  went  on  but  slowly  from  1825 
to  1836,  for  the  story  of  the  early  experiences  of  the  little 
company  of  dissenters,  obscure  persons  from  an  obscure 
parish,  if  known  at  all,  was  not  likely  to  inspire  others  to 
follow  in  large  numbers.  With  increasing  prosperity  in 
the  Rochester,  and  later  in  the  Fox  River,  colony,  the  tone 
of  letters  sent  back  to  friends  in  Norway  took  a  new  ring : 
America  came  to  mean  opportunity,  and  now  there  were 

^Billed  Magasin,  I,  83. 


30  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [260 

men  speaking  the  Norwegian  tongue  to  whom  newcomers 
might  go  for  instruction,  advice,  and  encouragement.  Old 
settlers  still  bear  witness  to  the  great  influence  of  these 
letters  of  the  thirties  telling  of  American  experiences  and 
of  American  conditions.  Among  the  most  influential  of 
these  semi-conscious  propagandists  of  emigration  was 
Gjert  G.  Hovland,  who  came  to  the  Rochester  settlement 
with  his  family  in  1831,  and  bought  fifty  acres  of  land, 
which  after  four  years  of  cultivation  he  sold  at  a  profit  of 
$ 500.  Writing  to  a  friend  near  Stavanger  in  1835,  he  spoke 
in  terms  of  high  praise  of  American  legislation,  equality, 
and  liberty,  contrasting  it  with  the  extortion  of  the  Nor- 
wegian official  aristocracy.  He  counseled  all  who  could  to 
come  to  America,  as  the  Creator  had  nowhere  forbidden 
men  to  settle  where  they  pleased.23  Of  this  and  other 
letters  by  Hovland,  copies  were  made  by  the  hundred  and 
circulated  in  the  Norwegian  parishes,  and  many  of  the 
early  immigrants  have  stated  that  they  were  induced  to 
emigrate  by  reading  these  letters.24  Another  man  whose 
words  prompted  to  emigration,  was  Gudmund  Sandsberg, 
who  came  to  New  York  in  1829  with  a  family  of  four.25 

These  letters  scattered  through  western  Norway  from 
1830  to  1840,  were  as  seed  sown  in  good  ground.  Times 
were  hard;  money  was  scarce  and  its  value  fluctuating.26 
The  crops  were  often  short,  the  prices  of  grain  were  high, 
and  the  demand  for  the  labor  of  the  peasants  was  weak ;  the 
economic  conditions  of  the  lower  classes,  especially  in  the 
rural  districts — much  the  greater  part  of  the  country — 
were  growing  worse  rather  than  better.27  Even  the  oldest 

28Translated  from  Langeland,  Nordmtendene  i  Amerika,  i6n.  This 
writer  summarizes  a  letter  of  which  he  saw  a  copy  as  a  young  man  in 
Norway. 

•*Ibid.;  Anderson,  Norwegian  Immigration,  147. 

25 Anderson,  Norwegian  Immigration,  133. 

-^Billed  Magasin,  I,  18-19.  Of  the  year  1836^  one  writer  asserts: 
"En  Daler  ei  gjaeldt  mere  end  to  norske  Skilling."  and  that  many  lost  all 
their  property. 

27In  Anderson,  Norwegian  Immigration,  133-135,  is  a  translation  of 
a  letter  written  in  Hellen  in  Norway,  May  14,  1836:  "If  good  reports 


261]  EARLY   NORWEGIAN   IMMIGRATION  31 

son,  who  was  heir  to  his  father's  homestead,  was  likely  to 
find  himself  possessed  of  a  debt-burdened  estate  and  with 
the  necessity  of  providing  for  the  mother  and  numerous 
younger  children.28  The  younger  sons,  being  still  wTorse 
off,  were  forced  to  try  their  hands  at  various  occupations 
to  earn  a  bare  living.  Ole  Nattestad,  already  mentioned, 
was  by  turns  before  his  emigration  farmer,  peddler,  black- 
smith, and  sheep-buyer.29  To  many  a  man  with  a  large 
family  of  growing  children  the  possibility  of  disaster  in  the 
United  States  was  less  forbidding  than  the  probability  of 
ultimate  failure  in  Norway. 

But  not  to  occasional  letters  alone  was  the  peasant, — 
and  the  emigration  movement — to  be  left  for  information 
and  inspiration.  Young  men  who  had  prospered  in  the 
new  life  returned  to  the  homesteads  of  their  fathers  and 
became,  temporarily,  missionaries  of  the  new  economic 
gospel,  teaching  leisurely  but  effectively  by  word  of 
mouth  and  face  to  face,  instead  of  by  written  lines  at  long 
range.  One  such  man  was  Knud  A.  Slogvig,  who  returned 
to  his  home  in  Skjold  in  1835  after  ten  years  in  America, 
not  as  an  emigrant  agent  nor  as  a  propagandist,  but  as  a 
lover  to  marry  his  betrothed, — an  early  example  which 
thousands  of  young  Scandinavians  in  the  years  to  come 
were  to  follow  gladly.30  Whatever  may  have  been  the  re- 
sults of  his  visit  to  Slogvig  personally,  they  were  of  far- 
reaching  importance  to  the  emigration  movement  in  west- 
ern Norway.  From  near  and  from  far,  from  Stavanger, 
from  Bergen  and  vicinity,  and  from  the  region  about 
Christiansand,  people  came  during  the  long  northern 
winter,  to  talk  with  this  experienced  and  worldly-wise  man 

come  from  them  (certain  emigrants  about  to-  sail)  the  number  of  emi- 
grants will  doubtless  be  still  larger  next  year.  A  pressing  and  general 
lack  of  money  enters  into  every  branch  of  business,  stops,  or  at  least 
hampers  business,  and  makes  it  difficult  for  many  people  to  earn  the 
necessaries  of  life.  While  this  is  the  case  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
there  is  hope  of  abundance  on  the  other,  and  this,  I  take  it,  is  the  chief 
cause  of  this  growing  disposition  to  emigrate." 

2*Billed  Magazin,  I,  6  ff. 

"Ibid.,  I,  83. 

30Anderson,  Xorwegian  Immigration,  148. 


32  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [262 

about  life  in  New  York  or  in  Illinois — or,  in  their  own 
phrase,  "i  Amerika."  There  before  them  at  last,  was  a 
man  who  had  twice  braved  all  the  terrors  of  thousands  of 
miles  of  sea  and  hundreds  of  miles  of  far-distant  land,  who 
had  come  straight  and  safe  from  that  fabulous  vast  coun- 
try, with  its  great  broad  valleys  and  prairies,  with  its 
strange  white  men,  and  stranger  red  men.  The  "America 
fever"  contracted  in  conferences  with  Slogvig  and  men  of 
his  kind,  was  hard  to  shake  off.31 

The  accounts  of  America  given  by  this  emigrant  visitor 
were  so  satisfactory,  that  when  he  prepared  to  go  back  to 
the  United  States  in  1836,  a  large  party  was  ready  to  go 
with  him.  Instead  of  the  fifty-two  who  slipped  out  of 
Stavanger,  half -secretly  in  1825,  there  were  now  about  160, 
for  whose  accommodation  two  brigs,  Norden  and  Den 
Norske  Kllppe,  were  specially  fitted  out.32  The  increased 
size  of  this  party  was  doubtless  due  in  some  measure  to 
discontent  with  the  religious  conditions  of  the  kingdom, 
but  more  to  the  activity  of  Bjorn  Anderson  Kvelve,  who 
desired  to  escape  the  consequences  of  his  sympathy  with 
Quakerism,  and  of  the  marriage  which  he,  the  son  of  a 
peasant,  had  contracted  with  the  daughter  of  an  aristo- 
cratic, staunchly  Lutheran  army  officer.33  Being,  as  his 
son  admits,  "a  born  agitator  and  debater'- — others  have 
called  him  quarrelsome, — he  persuaded  several  of  his 
friends  to  join  the  party,  and  he  soon  became  its  leader.34 
The  greater  part  of  the  two  ship-loads,  after  arrival  in 
New  York,  went  directly  to  La  Salle  County,  Illinois,  a  few 
stopping  in  or  near  Rochester.  For  several  years  after 
the  arrival  of  this  party,  the  immigrants  from  Norway 

31Langeland,  Nordmcendene  i  Amerika,  18;  Billed  Magasin,  I,  83. 
Langeland  writes :  "Tre  af  Nedskriverens  Paarorende,  som  reiste  f  ra 
Bergen  i  1837,  var  blandt  dem,  som  i  Vinteren  1836  besogte  ham,  og  kom 
hjem  fulde  af  Amerikafeber." 

32Langeland,  Nordmcendene  i  Amerika,  18;  Billed  Magazin,  I,  83,  150 
(Nattestad's  account). 

33Anderson,  Norwegian  Immigration,  157  ff;  Madison  Democrat 
(Wis.),  Nov.  8,  1885. 

34Anderson,  Norwegian  Immigration,  155. 


263]  EARLY   NORWEGIAN   IMMIGRATION  33 

generally  directed  their  course  towards  the  Illinois  settle- 
ment, which,  as  a  result,  grew  rapidly  and  spread  into  the 
neighboring  towns  of  Norway,  Leland,  Lisbon,  Morris, 
and  Ottawa. 

The  actual  process  of  migration  from  Norway  to  Illi- 
nois or  Wisconsin  was  full  of  serious  difficulty,  and  to  be 
entered  upon  by  those  only  who  possessed  a  strong  deter- 
mination and  a  stout  heart.  The  dangers,  discomforts,  and 
hardships  which  everywhere  attended  immigration  before 
1850,  were  made  even  more  trying,  in  prospect,  by  the 
weird  stories  of  wild  Indians,  slave-hunters,  and  savage 
beasts  on  land  and  sea,  all  of  which  were  thoroly  be- 
lieved by  the  peasants.  Moreover,  the  church  took  a  hand 
to  prevent  emigration,  the  bishop  of  Bergen  issuing  a  pas- 
toral letter  on  the  theme:  "Bliv  i  Landet,  eraser  dig 
redelig."  (Remain  in  the  land  and  support  thyself  hon- 
estly.)35 Until  a  much  later  time,  no  port  of  Norway  or 
Sweden  had  regular  commercial  intercourse  with  the  United 
States,  and  only  by  rare  chance  could  passage  be  secured 
from  Bergen  or  some  southern  port  direct  to  New  York  or 
Boston.  The  usual  course  for  those  desiring  passage  to 
America  was  to  go  to  some  foreign  port  and  there  wait  for 
a  ship;  it  was  good  luck  if  accommodation  were  secured 
immediately  and  if  the  expensive  waiting  did  not  stretch 
out  two  or  three  weeks.  The  port  most  convenient  for  the 
Norwegians  was  Gothenburg  in  Sweden,  from  which  car- 
goes of  Swedish  iron  were  shipped  to  America;  from  that 
place  most  of  the  emigrants  before  1840  departed,  tho 
some  went  by  way  of  Hamburg,  Havre,  or  an  English  port. 

Long  after  1850,  the  immigrants  came  by  sailing  ves- 
sels because  the  rates  were,  on  the  whole,  cheaper  than  by 
steamer ;  those  men  who  had  large  families  were  especially 
urged  to  take  the  sailing  craft.36  The  days  of  emigrant 
agents,  through-tickets,  and  capacious  and  comparatively 
comfortable  steerage  quarters  in  great  ocean  liners  were  far 

85Langeland,  Nordmcendene  i  Amerika,  22.  He  naively  remarks  that 
the  Scandinavians  have  preferred  to  follow  that  other  text :  "Be  fruit- 
ful ....  replenish  the  earth." 

^Billed  Magasin,  I,  123-124. 


34  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [264 

in  the  future;  the  usual  accommodations  were  poor  and 
unsanitary;  the  danger  from  contagious  diseases,  scurvy, 
and  actual  famine  were  very  real,  especially  if  the  voyage, 
long  at  the  best,  was  prolonged  to  four  and  perhaps  five 
months.37  The  cost  of  passage  varied  greatly  according 
to  accommodations  and  according  to  the  port  of  departure. 
Sometimes  the  passage  charge  included  food,  bedding,  and 
other  necessaries,  but  usually  the  passengers  were  required 
to  furnish  these.  One  company  of  about  85  in  1837  paid 
$60  for  each  adult,  and  half  fare  for  children,  from  Bergen 
to  New  York.38  In  the  same  year  another  company  of  93 
paid  $31  for  each  adult  from  Stavanger  to  New  York, 
without  board;  still  another,  numbering  about  100,  paid 
$33  1-3  for  each  adult  passenger  from  Drammen  in  Norway 
to  New  York;  the  Nattestad  brothers  paid  $50  from  Goth- 
enburg to  Boston.39  In  1846,  a  large  party  went  to  Havre, 
and  paid  $25  for  passage  to  New  York.40  The  extreme 
figures,  therefore,  seem  to  be  about  $30  and  $60  for  passage 
between  one  of  the  Scandinavian  ports  and  New  York  or 
Boston.  When  the  cost  of  transportation  from  the  Atlantic 
seaboard  to  Illinois  and  Wisconsin  is  added  to  these 
figures,  it  will  be  plain  that  a  considerable  sum  of 
ready  cash,  as  well  as  strength  and  courage,  was  necessary 
for  undertaking  the  transplantation  of  a  whole  family  from 
a  Norwegian  valley  in  the  mountains  to  an  Illinois  prairie. 

"Interview  with  the  late  Rev.  O.  C.  Hjort  of  Chicago,  July,  1890, 
whose  party  spent  five  months  on  the  sea. 

38Langeland,  Nordmandene  i  Amerika,  25 — "saavidt  nu  erindres." 
39Billed  Magazin,  I,  9,  94. 
*«Ibid.,  I,  388. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  RISING  STREAM  OF  NORWEGIAN  IMMIGRATION. 

The  second  period  of  Norwegian  immigration,  extend- 
ing from  1836  to  1850,  is  marked  by  the  strengthening  and 
deepening  of  the  emigration  impulse  in  Norway  and  by  its 
spread  to  new  districts,  and  also  by  the  deflection  of  the 
course  of  the  rising  stream  in  the  United  States.  Not 
merely  in  the  vicinity  of  Stavanger,  from  which  a  second 
party,  made  up  of  93  persons  from  Egersund,  followed  the 
wake  of  the  first  and  reached  Illinois  in  1837,  but  from  Ber- 
gen and  in  the  districts  near  it,  the  "America  fever"  was 
spreading.  The  letters  of  Ho  viand  circulated  there,  and 
at  least  three  men  journeyed  to  interview  Slogvig.  Knud 
Langeland,  whose  little  book  on  the  Northmen  in  America 
is  frequently  quoted  in  these  pages,  relates  how,  as  a  young 
man  of  sixteen,  his  imagination  was  fired  by  reading  a 
small  volume  written  by  a  German  and  entitled  Journey 
in  America,  which  he  discovered  in  the  library  of  a  friend 
in  Bergen  in  1829;  how  he  read  eagerly  for  several  years 
everything  which  he  could  lay  hands  on  relating  to  Amer- 
ica; and  how  he  gathered  all  possible  information  about 
the  emigration  from  England,  during  a  visit  to  that  country 
in  1834 — and  then  became  himself  an  immigrant.1 

By  1837  a  goodly  number  were  determined  to  emi- 
grate, and  had  disposed  of  their  holdings  of  land.  A  way 
opened  for  them  to  make  the  long  voyage  under  especially 
favorable  circumstances.  Captain  Behrens,  owner  and 
commander  of  the  ship  sEgir,  on  his  return  to  Bergen  in  the 
autumn  of  1836,  learned  that  a  large  party  wanted  trans- 
portation to  America.  In  New  York  he  had  seen  vessels 

Langeland,  Nordwandene  i  Amerika,  20-21.     See  Cobbett,  The  Emi- 
grant's Guide  (London,  1829),  a  typical  English  guide  book  of  the  period. 

35 


36  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [266 

fitted  up  for  the  English  and  German  immigrant  traffic; 
he  had  learned  the  requirement  of  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  on  the  subject ;  two  German  ministers  who  returned 
to  Europe  in  his  ship,  gave  him  further  information.  He 
therefore  fitted  up  his  vessel  for  passengers,  and  carried 
out  his  contract  to  transport  to  New  York  the  party  which 
finally  numbered  84,  being  mainly  made  up  of  married 
men  each  with  "numerous  family,"  at  least  one  of  which 
counted  eight  persons.2  From  New  York  the  company 
proceeded  to  Detroit,  where  they  were  joined  by  the  two 
Nattestad  brothers  from  Numedal,  and  from  thence  they 
went  by  water  to  Chicago. 

Their  original  intention  was  to  go  to  the  La  Salle 
County  settlement,  but  in  Chicago  they  met  some  of  the 
Fox  River  people,  Bjorn  Anderson  among  others,  who 
gave  such  an  unfavorable  account  of  conditions  in  that 
colony  that  the  majority  determined  to  seek  another  loca- 
tion. At  the  instigation  of  certain  Americans,  presumably 
land  speculators,  a  prospecting  party  of  four,  including 
Ole  Rynning,  one  of  the  leading  spirits  of  the  company, 
went  into  the  region  directly  south  of  Chicago  and  finally 
chose  a  site  on  Beaver  Creek.  Thither  about  fifty  immi- 
grants went,  and  began  the  third  Norwegian  settlement, 
which  proved  to  be  the  most  unfortunate  one  in  the  history 
of  Norwegian  immigration.  Log  huts  were  built  and  the 
winter  passed  without  unusual  hardships,  tho  it  was 
soon  evident  that  a  mistake  was  made  in  settling  so  far 
from  neighbors  and  from  a  base  of  supplies  at  that  time  of 
the  year  when  the  soil  produced  nothing.  Serious  troubles, 
however,  developed  with  the  spring,  and  grew  with  the 
summer.  The  land  which  appeared  so  dry  and  so  well- 
covered  with  good  grass  when  it  was  selected  and  pur- 
chased in  August  or  September,  proved  to  be  so  swampy 
that  cultivation  was  impossible  before  June.  Malaria 
attacked  the  settlers,  and  as  they  were  beyond  the  reach  of 
medical  aid,  nearly  two-thirds  of  them  died  before  the  end 
of  the  summer.  The  remnant  of  the  colony  fled  as  for  their 

2Langeland,  Nordmandene  i  Amerika,  25  ff. 


267]  LATER   NORWEGIAN   IMMIGRATION  37 

lives,  regardless  of  houses  and  lands,  and  scarcely  one  of 
them  remained  on  the  ground  by  the  end  of  1838.3 

One  of  the  victims  of  these  hard  experiences  was  Ole 
Rynning,  who  succumbed  to  fever  in  the  autumn  of  1838. 
Tho  in  America  scarcely  a  year  and  a  half,  he  is  one  of 
the  uniquely  important  figures  in  the  history  of  Norwegian 
immigration.  The  son  of  a  curate  in  Ringsaker  in  central 
Norway,  and  himself  dedicated  by  his  parents  to  the  church, 
he  passed  the  examinations  for  entrance  to  the  University 
of  Christiania,  but  turned  aside  to  teaching  in  a  private 
school  near  Throndhjem  for  four  years  before  his  emigra- 
tion.4 He  is  invariably  spoken  of  as  a  man  of  generous, 
philanthropic  spirit,  genuinely  devoted  to  the  human  needs 
of  his  fellow  immigrants. 

Having  learned  by  personal  observation  in  America 
the  answers  to  many  of  the  questions  which  he,  as  a  man 
of  education,  had  asked  himself  in  Norway,  he  took  ad- 
vantage of  the  confinement  following  the  freezing  of  his 
feet  during  a  long  exploring  tour  in  Illinois,  to  write  a  little 
book  of  some  forty  pages,  to  which  he  gave  the  title  (in 
translation)  :  "A  true  Account  of  America,  for  the  Instruc- 
tion and  Use  of  the  Peasants  and  Common  people,  written 
by  a  Norwegian  who  arrived  there  in  the  Month  of  June, 
1837. "5  The  manuscript  of  this  first  of  many  guidebooks 
for  Norwegian  emigrants  was  taken  back  to  Norway  by 
Ansten  Nattestad  and  printed  in  Christiania  in  1838.6  It 
plays  so  large  a  part  in  a  great  movement,  that  a  detailed 
analysis  is  worth  presenting. 

The  preface,  bearing  the  author's  signature  and  the 
date,  "Illinois,  February  13, 1838,"  is  translated  as  follows : 

"Dear  Countrymen, — Peasants  and  Artisans !    I  have 

3Langeland,  Nordmandene  i  Amerika,  30  ff;  Anderson,  Norwegian 
Immigration,  195  ff. 

*Anderson,  Norwegian  Immigration,  203-205 ;  Langeland,  Nordmcend- 
ene  i  Amerika,  31.  Much  information  regarding  Rynning  was  derived 
from  the  Rev.  B.  J.  Muus,  of  Minnesota,  a  nephew  of  Rynning. 

5Sandfaerdig  Beretning  om  Amerika  til  Veiledning  og  Hjaelp  for 
Bonde  og  Menigmand,  skrevet  af  en  Norsk  som  kom  der  i  Juni  Maaned, 
1837." 

^Billed  Magazin,  I,  94. 


38  THE  SCANDINAVIAN   ELEMENT  [268 

now  been  in  America  eight  months,  and  in  that  time  I  have 
had  an  opportunity  of  finding  out  much  in  regard  to  which 
I  in  vain  sought  information  before  I  left  Norway.  I  then 
felt  how  disagreeable  it  is  for  those  who  wish  to  emigrate 
to  America  to  be  in  want  of  a  reliable  and  tolerably  com- 
plete account  of  the  country.  I  also  learned  how  great  is 
the  ignorance  of  the  people,  and  what  false  and  ridiculous 
reports  were  accepted  as  the  full  truth.  In  this  little  book 
it  has,  therefore,  been  my  aim  to  answer  every  question 
which  I  asked  myself,  and  to  clear  up  every  point  in  regard 
to  which  I  observed  that  people  were  ignorant,  and  to 
disprove  false  reports  which  have  come  to  my  ears,  partly 
before  I  left  Norway,  and  partly  after  my  arrival  here."7 
The  body  of  the  book  is  made  up  of  thirteen  chapters 
devoted  to  these  questions  and  their  answers : 

1-3.  The  location  of  America,  the  distance  from  Nor- 
way, the  nature  of  the  country,  and  the  reason  why 
so  many  people  go  there. 

4.  "Is  it  not  to  be  feared  that  the  land  will  soon  be 
overpopulated?  Is  it  true  that  the  government 
there  is  going  to  prohibit  immigration?" 

5-6.  What  part  of  the  land  is  settled  by  Norwegians, 
and  how  is  it  reached?  What  is  the  price  of  land, 
of  cattle,  of  the  necessaries  of  life?  How  high 
are  wages? 

7.  "What  kind  of  religion  is  there  in  America?  Is 
there  any  sort  of  order  and  government,  or  can 
every  man  do  what  he  pleases?" 

8-9.  Education,  care  of  the  poor,  the  language  spoken 
in  America,  and  the  difficulties  of  learning  it. 

10.  Is  there  danger  of  disease  in  America?    Is  there 
reason  to  fear  wild  animals  and  the  Indians? 

11.  Advice  as  to  the  kind  of  people  to  emigrate,  and 
warning  against  unreasonable  expectations. 

7Anderson,  Norwegian  Immigration,  207-208.  In  making  this  and  the 
following  translations,  Mr.  Anderson  used  the  copy  of  Rynning's  book 
belonging  to  the  Rev.  B.  J.  Muus,  the  only  copy  known  to  be  in  America. 
This  copy  is  now  in  the  library  of  the  University  of  Illinois. 


269]  LATER   NORWEGIAN   IMMIGRATION  39 

12.  "What  dangers  may  be  expected  on  the  ocean? 
Is  it  true  that  those  who  are  taken  to  America  are 
sold  as  slaves?" 

13.  Advice  as  to  vessels,  routes,  seasons,  exchange  of 
money,  etc, 

Rynning  assured  his  readers,  in  the  seventh  chapter, 
that  America  is  not  a  purely  heathen  country,  but  that  the 
Christian  religion  prevails  with  liberty  of  conscience,  and 
that  "here  as  in  Norway,  there  are  laws,  government,  and 
authority,  and  that  the  common  man  can  go  where  he 
pleases  without  passport,  and  may  engage  in  such  occupa- 
tion as  he  likes."8  Then  follows  this  strong,  significant 
paragraph,  intelligently  describing  the  slavery  system, 
which  undoubtedly  had  a  powerful  influence  on  the  future 
location,  and  hence  on  the  politics,  of  the  immigrants  from 
Scandinavia : 

"In  the  Southern  States  these  poor  people  (Negroes) 
are  bought  and  sold  like  other  property,  and  are  driven  to 
their  work  with  a  whip  like  horses  and  oxen.  If  a  master 
whips  his  slave  to  death  or  in  his  rage  shoots  him  dead,  he 
is  not  looked  upon  as  a  murderer. ...  In  Missouri  the  slave 
trade  is  still  permitted,  but  in  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Wis- 
consin Territory  it  is  strictly  forbidden,  and  the  institution 
is  strictly  despised.  .  .  .  There  will  probably  soon  come  a 
separation  between  the  Northern  and  Southern  States  or  a 
bloody  conflict." 

From  the  account  given  thirty  years  afterwards  by 
Ansten  Nattestad,  it  appears  that  a  chapter  on  the  religious 
condition  of  Norway  was  omitted  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Kragh 
of  Eidsvold,  who  read  the  proofs,  because  of  its  criticisms 
of  the  clergy  for  their  intolerance,  and  for  their  inactivity 
in  social  and  educational  reforms.9  This  has  led  some  writ- 
ers like  R.  B.  Anderson  to  attribute  large  weight  to  relig- 
ious persecution  as  a  cause  of  emigration.  While  religious 

8Rynning,   Sandfardig  Beretning,  23,   24.     Translated   in   Anderson, 
Norwegian  Immigration,  214-215. 
^Billed  Magazin,  I,  94. 


40  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [270 

repression  was  a  real  grievance  and  affected  many  of  the 
early  emigrants,  the  cases  where  it  was  the  moving  or 
dominant  cause  of  emigration  after  1835  are  so  few  as  to  be 
almost  negligible.10  At  best,  it  re-enforced  and  completed 
a  determination  based  on  other  motives.  For  most  Norwe- 
gian dissenters,  the  Haugians  for  example,  lack  of  toler- 
ation was  rather  an  annoyance  than  a  distress,  save,  per- 
haps, for  the  more  persistent  and  turbulent  leaders.11  It  is 
hardly  fair,  therefore,  to  compare  them,  as  a  whole,  with 
the  Huguenots  of  France.12 

In  the  years  immediately  following  1838,  the  "America 
Book,"  distributed  from  Christiania,  went  on  its  missionary 
journeys  and  reached  many  parishes  where  the  disaster  at 
Beaver  Creek  and  the  untimely  death  of  Ole  Rynning  had 
never  been  heard  of.  By  its  compact  information  and  its 
intelligent  advice,  it  converted  many  to  the  new  movement. 
The  diary  of  Ole  Nattestad,  printed  in  Drammen  in  the 
same  year,  seems  to  have  exerted  very  little  influence,  but 
the  visit  of  his  brother  Ansten  to  his  home  in  Numedal,  in 
east-central  Norway,  a  hitherto  unstirred  region,  awakened 
keen  and  active  interest  in  America,  and  again  men  travel- 
led as  far  as  125  English  miles  to  meet  one  who  had  re- 
turned from  the  vast  land  beyond  the  Atlantic.13 

The  first  party  from  Numedal  left  Drammen  in  the 
spring  of  1839,  under  the  leadership  of  Nattestad,  and  went 
directly  to  New  York.  It  numbered  about  one  hundred 
able-bodied  farmers  with  their  families,  some  of  them  be- 
ing men  with  considerable  capital.  From  New  York  they 
went  to  Chicago,  expecting  to  join  Ole  Nattestad  at  the  Fox 
River.  At  the  latter  city  they  learned  that  he  had  gone 
into  Wisconsin  after  his  brother  left  for  Norway  in  1838, 
and  that  he  had  there  purchased  land  in  the  township  of 
Clinton  in  Rock  County,  thus  being  probably  the  first  Nor- 
wegian settler  in  Wisconsin.  Accordingly  the  larger  part 

10Letters  of  R.  B.  Anderson  and  J.  A.  Johnson,  Daily  Skandinaven, 
Feb.  7,  1896. 

"Brohough,  Elling  Eielsens  Liv  og  Virksomhed,  10-11,  20-21,  30-36. 
12Anderson,  Norwegian  Immigration,  50. 
^Billed  Magazin,  I,  94. 


271]  LATER   NORWEGIAN   IMMIGRATION  41 

of  the  Numedal  party  followed  him  to  the  newer  region, 
where  better  land  could  be  had  than  any  remaining  in  La 
Salle  County,  Illinois,  at  the  minimum  price,  and  took  up 
sections  near  Jefferson  Prairie.  Thus  the  current  of  Scan- 
dinavian settlement  was  deflected  from  Illinois  to  Wiscon- 
sin, and  later  comers  from  Numedal,  in  1840  and  after- 
wards, steered  straight  for  southeastern  Wisconsin.  In 
1839  and  later  other  recruits  for  the  growing  and  prosper- 
ous settlement  of  Norwegians  in  Rock  County  and  adjoin- 
ing counties  came  from  Voss  and  the  vicinity  of  Bergen. 
Possibly  the  difference  of  dialects  had  something  to  do 
with  drawing  people  from  the  same  province  or  district 
into  one  settlement,  but  in  a  general  way  the  same  reasons 
and  processes  operated  among  the  Norwegian  emigrants 
as  among  those  from  Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania,  and 
Virginia  who  settled  in  various  States  in  sectional  groups, 
sometimes  dividing  a  county  by  a  well-defined  line. 

Closely  connected  with  this  settlement,  begun  under 
the  leadership  of  the  Nattestad  brothers,  were  other  set- 
tlements in  adjacent  townships, — at  Rock  Prairie  or  Luther 
Valley,  comprising  the  present  towns  of  Plymouth,  New- 
ark, Avon,  and  Spring  Valley  in  Rock  County,  Wisconsin, 
and  Rock  Run  in  Illinois.  Through  these  settlements  many 
new  comers  filtered  and  spread  out  rapidly  toward  the  West 
and  Northwest,  reaching  in  a  few  years  as  far  as  Mineral 
Point,  more  than  fifty  miles  from  Jefferson  Prairie. 

Other  sections  of  Norway  than  those  already  men- 
tioned began  to  feel  the  effects  of  the  emigration  bacillus 
after  1837,  and  the  processes  illustrated  by  the  movements 
from  Stavanger,  Bergen,  and  Numedal  were  repeated — 
the  emigration  of  two  or  three,  letters  sent  home,  the  return 
of  a  man  here  and  there,  the  organization  of  the  party,  the 
long  journey,  and  the  selection  of  the  new  home.  Thele- 
mark,  the  rugged  mountainous  district  in  south  cen- 
tral Norway,  was  in  a  condition  to  be  strongly  moved  by 
stories  of  freer  and  larger  opportunities.  Long  before 
1837,  great  tracts  of  land  in  Upper  Thelemark  became  the 
property  of  two  wealthy  lumber  men,  and  the  tenant- 
farmers  were  drawn  more  and  more  into  work  in  the  lum- 


42  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [272 

ber  mills,  to  the  neglect  of  farming  and  grazing.  Conse- 
quently, when  logging  was  suspended  in  the  hard  times,  and 
the  wages,  already  low,  were  stopped  altogether,  great  dis- 
tress resulted,  and  emigration  seemed  about  the  only  means 
of  escape.  "With  lack  of  employment  and  with  impoverish- 
ment, debt  and  discontent  appeared  as  the  visible  evidences 
of  the  bad  condition.  That  was  the  golden  age  of  the 
money-lenders  and  sheriffs.  So  the  America  fever  raged, 
and  many  crossed  the  ocean  in  the  hope  of  finding  a  bit  of 
ground  where  they  could  live  and  enjoy  the  fruits  of  their 
labors  without  daily  anxiety  about  paydays,  rents,  and 
executions."14 

A  company  of  about  forty,  representing  eleven  fam- 
ilies from  Thelemark,  failing  to  get  accommodations  with 
the  Nattestad  party  at  Drammen,  went  on  to  Skien  and 
thence  to  Gothenburg,  where  they  secured  passage  in  an 
American  vessel  loaded  with  iron,  and  made  the  voyage 
to  Boston  in  two  months.15  Three  weeks  more  were  con- 
sumed in  the  circuitous  journey  to  Milwaukee  by  way  of 
New  York,  Albany,  the  Erie  Canal  and  the  Great  Lakes. 
Like  several  other  parties  of  that  year  they  originally  aimed 
at  Illinois.16  But  their  boat  "leaked  like  a  sieve,"  and  the 
stop  at  Milwaukee  was  probably  precautionary.  Instead 
of  proceeding  further,  they  were  persuaded  to  send  a  com- 
mittee, under  the  guidance  of  an  American,  into  the  present 
county  of  Waukesha,  where  they  selected  a  tract  about 
fourteen  miles  southwest  of  Milwaukee,  on  the  shore  of 
Lake  Muskego.17  Here  each  adult  man  took  up  forty  acres 
at  the  usual  minimum  price  of  f  1.25  per  acre,  and  so  began 

"Translated  from  Billed  Magazin,  I,  18  ff. 

™Ibid,  6-7. 

16A  shipping  notice  in  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  Aug.  i,  1839 
reads:  "Passengers, — in  the  "Venice"  from  Gothenburg,  67  Norwegians 
on  their  way  to  Illinois." 

17 An  oft-repeated  story  tells  how  the  company  was  persuaded  to 
remain  in  Wisconsin  by  some  enterprising  Milwaukee  men  who  pointed 
out  to  the  immigrants  a  fat,  healthy-looking  man  as  a  specimen  of  what 
Wisconsin  would  do  for  a  man,  and  a  lean,  sickly-looking  man  as  a 
warning  of  what  the  scorching  heats  and  fever  of  Illinois  would  quickly 
do  to  a  man  who  settled  there.  See  Billed  Magazin,  I,  7. 


273]  LATER   NORWEGIAN  IMMIGRATION  43 

the  Muskego  colony  proper,  the  name,  Muskego,  however, 
being  later  applied  to  the  group  of  settlements  in  Wauke- 
sha  County  and  to  several  towns  in  Racine  County.18  Like 
the  colony  in  Kock  County,  the  Muskego  group  grew 
rapidly  in  spite  of  malarial  troubles,  and  for  ten  years  it 
was  an  objective  point  for  immigrants  from  Thelemark, 
and  a  halting  place  for  those  bound  for  the  frontier  farther 
west  in  Wisconsin  or  in  Iowa. 

As  the  emigration  movement  from  Norway  increased, 
the  planning  of  settlements  and  the  organization  of  parties 
took  on  a  more  definite  and  business-like  air.  The  process 
is  well  illustrated  in  the  case  of  the  town  of  Norway  in 
Racine  County,  Wisconsin,  which  was  one  of  the  most 
successfully  managed  settlements  in  the  Northwest.  In 
the  fall  of  1839,  two  intelligent  men  of  affairs,  So'ren  Bakke, 
the  son  of  a  rich  merchant  of  Drammen,  and  John  Johnson 
(Johannes  Johannesson),  came  to  America  on  a  prospect- 
ing tour,  for  the  purpose  of  finding  a  place  where  they 
might  invest  money  in  land  as  a  foundation  for  a  colony, 
which  they  may  possibly  have  intended  to  serve  as  a  new 
home  for  a  sect  of  dissenters  known  as  Haugians.19  After 
visiting  Fox  River  in  Illinois,  and  various  locations  in 
Wisconsin,  they  found  a  tract  that  suited  them — good  land, 
clear  water,  and  abundance  of  game  and  fish,  enough  to 
satisfy  the  most  fastidious.  This  they  purchased,  building 
a  cabin  on  it  and  awaiting  the  coming  of  their  friends  to 
whom  they  sent  a  favorable  report.20  The  party  arrived  in 
the  autumn  of  1840,  under  the  leadership  of  Even  Heg,  an 
innkeeper  of  Leir,  who  brought  still  more  money,  which 
was  also  invested  in  land.  Altogether,  the  money  which 
Bakke  brought  with  him,  or  received  later,  amounted  to 
$6000.21  It  was  all  used  for  purchasing  land,  which  was 
either  sold  to  well-to-do  immigrants,  or  leased  to  new  com- 
ers. This  business  was  supplemented  by  a  store  kept  in 
the  first  cabin.  Upon  the  death  of  Johnson  in  1845,  Bakke 

18Billed  Magazin,  I,  10. 
19/Wrf.,  I,  12. 
20 Ibid.,  I.  1 8. 
2llbid.,  I,  12. 


44  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [274 

went  home  and  settled  upon  an  estate  owned  by  his  father 
in  Leir,  one  of  the  first  of  the  very  small  number  of  men 
who  have  returned  to  permanent  residence  in  Norway  after 
some  years  spent  in  America.22  Even  Heg  became  the  real 
head  of  the  colony  at  Norway,  Wisconsin,  after  the  depart- 
ure of  Bakke,  whose  interests  he  continued  to  look  after, 
and  under  his  management  a  steady  development  followed. 
This  settlement  became  the  Mecca  of  hundreds  of  immi- 
grants arriving  in  Milwaukee  in  the  late  .forties,  and 
"Heg's  barn  was  for  some  months  every  summer  crowded 
with  newcomers  en  route  for  some  place  farther  west."23 

Another  important  and  highly  prosperous  group  of 
settlements,  called  Koshkonong  after  the  lake  and  creek 
of  that  name,  sprang  up  in  1840  and  1841,  in  the  south- 
western corner  of  Jefferson  County,  Wisconsin,  and  the  ad- 
jacent parts  of  Dane  and  Rock  Counties.  The  beginning 
was  made  by  men  who  removed  thither  from  the  Fox  River 
and  Beaver  Creek  localities  after  investigating  the  lands 
in  Wisconsin.  In  1840  there  were  nine  entries  of  land 
by  Norwegians  in  the  present  townships  of  Albion,  Chris- 
tiana, and  Deerfield,  the  usual  purchase  being  eighty  acres ; 
the  next  few  years  saw  the  spread  of  the  colony  to  the  town- 
ships of  Pleasant  Valley  and  Dunkirk,  from  the  influx  of 
immigrants  from  Illinois  and  from  Norway.24  After  the 
stress  and  hardship  of  the  first  pioneer  years,  the  fortunate 
choice  of  location  in  one  of  the  best  agricultural  sections 
of  Wisconsin  told  very  promptly,  and  Koshkonong  became 
"the  best  known,  richest,  and  most  interesting  Norwegian 
settlement  in  America,  the  destination  of  thousands  of 
pilgrims  from  the  fatherland  since  1840."25  Many  of  the 
farms  are  still  in  possession  of  the  families  of  the  original 
settlers,  whose  children  are  prominent  in  business,  profes- 
sional and  political  circles. 

—Ibid.;  Anderson,  Norwegian  Immigration,  280  ff. 

23Langeland,  Nordmcendene  i  Ainerika,  44;  Billed  Magasin,  I,  13. 

24Anderson,  Norwegian  Immigration,  326  ff.  Anderson  quotes  in  full 
a  letter  from  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Land  Office  giving  date 
and  extent  of  each  entry  by  Norwegians. 

2BM.  W.  Odland,  Amerika,  Jan.  15,  1904. 


275]  LATER   NORWEGIAN   IMMIGRATION  45 

The  movement  of  the  stream  of  Norwegian  immigrants 
after  1845  was  distinctly  in  a  direction  westward  from  the 
Wisconsin  settlements ;  the  land  farther  out  on  the  prairies 
was  better,  tho  it  did  not  have  the  combination  of  timber 
and  stream  or  lake  which  the  early  settlers  insisted  on  hav- 
ing, often  to  their  detriment,  since  land  chosen  with  refer- 
ence to  these  requirements  was  apt  to  be  marshy.  The  fresh 
arrivals,  after  a  few  weeks  or  months  in  the  friendly  and 
helpful  communities  of  early  immigrants,  were  better  pre- 
pared by  a  partial  acclimatization,  by  knowledge  of  the 
steps  necessary  for  acquiring  citizenship  and  land-owner- 
ship, and  by  the  formation  of  definite  plans  of  procedure, 
for  the  next  stage  in  the  western  course  of  their  empire. 
Occasionally  a  shrewd  farmer  of  the  older  companies  took 
advantage  of  the  rise  in  the  value  of  his  farm,  sold  out, 
and  bought  another  tract  farther  out  on  the  frontier,  per- 
haps repeating  the  process  two  or  three  times.26  John 
Nelson  Luraas,  for  example,  was  one  of  those  men  who 
first  spent  some  time  in  Muskego,  then  bought  land  in 
Norway,  Racine  County ;  after  improving  it  for  three  years, 
he  sold  it  in  1843  and  moved  into  Dane  County.27  Here 
he  lived  for  twenty-five  years,  and  then  moved  into  Web- 
ster County,  Iowa,  taking  up  new  land.  After  a  few  years 
he  went  back  to  his  Dane  County  property,  where  he  spent 
another  thirteen  years;  finally,  as  an  aged,  retired,  wealthy 
farmer,  he  died  in  the  village  of  Stoughton  in  1890.28 

Provision  for  religious  instruction  and  ministration 
was  one  of  the  early  concerns  of  the  Norwegian  immigrants, 
as  would  be  expected  from  a  people  essentially  religious, 
who  moved  by  whole  families.  Nor  was  there  much  dis- 
tinction between  the  more  orthodox  and  the  dissenters. 
After  their  magnetic  center  shifted  to  the  west  in  1835  and 
the  settlements  and  population  multiplied,  a  good  deal  of 
lay  preaching  of  one  sort  and  another  went  on, — Lutheran, 

26Langeland,  Nordmandene  i  Amerika,  44-45;  Billed  Magasin,  I,  13. 

27It  may  be  well  to  note  that  the  name  of  Dane  county  has  no  relation 
to  Scandinavian  settlement,  but  was  given  in  honor  of  Nathan  Dane  of 
Massachusetts,  author  of  the  Northwest  Ordinance  of  1787. 

28Anderson,  Norwegian  Immigration,  276. 


46  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [276 

Methodist,  Haugian,  Baptist,  Episcopalian,  and  Mormon. 
Lay  services,  in  fact,  were  the  rule  all  along  the  westward 
moving  frontier,  and  services  conducted  by  regular  clergy- 
men the  exception.  One  of  the  Norwegians  wrote:  "We 
conducted  our  religious  meetings  in  our  own  democratic 
way.  We  appointed  our  leader  and  requested  some  one 
to  read  from  a  book  of  sermons.  .  .  .  We  prayed,  exhorted, 
and  sang  among  ourselves,  and  even  baptised  our  babies 
ourselves."29 

Cut  off  by  language  from  much  participation  in  Eng- 
lish worship — a  man  must  know  an  alien  tongue  long  and 
thoroly  to  make  it  serviceable  for  religious  purposes — the 
men  from  Numedal,  Vos,  and  Drammen,  felt  keenly  a 
great  need  for  some  one  to  instruct  their  children  in  the 
Norwegian  language  and  in  the  Lutheran  religion  after  the 
Old  World  customs.  In  1843,  two  hundred  men  and 
women  in  the  flourishing  group  of  settlements  around 
Jefferson  Prairie,  Wisconsin,  signed  a  petition  addressed 
to  Bishop  Sorenson  in  Norway  asking  him  to  send  them  a 
capable  and  pious  young  pastor,  to  whom  they  promised 
to  give  a  parsonage,  80  acres  of  land,  $300  in  money,  and 
fees  for  baptisms,  marriages,  and  the  like.30  Tho  this 
petition  itself  seems  not  to  have  been  answered,  it  was  not 
long  before  a  properly  ordained  clergyman  arrived. 

Glaus  Lauritz  Clausen,  a  Danish  student  of  theology 
seeking  employment  as  a  tutor  in  Norway,  was  persuaded, 
probably  by  the  father  of  Soren  Bakke  in  Drammen,  to 
heed  the  call  from  America.31  On  his  arrival  in  the  West 
in  1843,  he  found  the  need  for  a  pastor  and  preacher  more 
urgent  than  for  a  teacher,  and  accordingly  he  sought  and 
received  ordination  at  the  hands  of  a  German  Lutheran 
minister,  October,  1843.32  He  proceeded  to  organize,  in 
Heg's  barn  at  Norway,  the  first  congregation  of  Norwegian 
Lutherans  in  the  United  States,  and  so  began  a  career  of 

29A  letter  of  John   E.  Molee,  February,   1895,  quoted  by  Anderson. 
Norwegian  Immigration,  320.     (See  also,  ibid.,  396-399.) 
30Anderson,  Norwegian  Immigration,  255. 
81Nelson,  Scandinavians  in  the  United  States,  (2d  ed.)  387  ff. 
32Bothne,  Kort  Udsigt,  835  ff. 


277]  LATER   NORWEGIAN   IMMIGRATION  47 

useful  ministration  which  lasted  nearly  half  a  century.  Not 
long  after  his  ordination,  its  validity  was  called  in  question 
by  strict  Lutherans.  The  question  was  finally  submitted  to 
the  theological  faculty  of  the  University  of  Christiania, 
which  decided  that  "the  circumstance  that  an  ordination 
is  performed  by  a  minister  and  not  by  a  bishop,  cannot  in 
itself  destroy  the  validity  of  the  ministerial  ordination."33 
At  any  rate,  Clausen's  activity,  general  helpfulness, 
staunchness  of  convictions,  and  length  of  service,  if  not  his 
ordination,  make  him  one  of  the  typical  pioneer  preach- 
ers.34 

Another  clergyman  of  the  same  class  as  Clausen,  was 
Elling  Eielsen,  a  Haugian  lay-preacher  who  went  from 
place  to  place  in  the  Northwest  from  1839  to  1843,  holding 
services  with  his  countrymen.  He  was  ordained  in  the 
same  month  as  Clausen,  and,  like  him,  in  a  semi-valid 
fashion,  by  a  Lutheran  clergyman,  not  a  bishop.35  Like 
Clausen,  also,  his  term  of  labors  as  a  Haugian  apostle, 
passed  forty  years.36 

Whatever  irregularities  in  the  ordination  of  Clausen 
or  of  Eielsen  may  have  disturbed  the  consciences  of  the 
stricter  of  the  Lutheran  sect,  nothing  of  the  sort  attached 
to  the  Rev.  Johannes  Wilhelm  Christian  Dietrichson,  who 
arrived  in  1844,  fresh  from  the  University  of  Christiania 
and  from  the  ordaining  hands  of  the  Bishop  of  Christiania. 
He  was  a  diligent,  aggressive,  zealous  young  man  of  about 
thirty,  sent  out  as  a  kind  of  home  missionary  in  foreign 
parts  at  the  expense  of  a  wealthy  dyer  of  Christiania.  For 
two  years,  summer  and  winter,  he  went  back  and  fortli  in 

33Jacobs,  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church,  411. 

3*Bothne,  Kort  Udsigt,  835;  Jensson,  American  Lutheran  Biographies, 
"Clausen." 

33Brohough,  Elling  Eielsens  Liv  og  Virksomhed,  ch.  II,  and  App. 

86Nelson,  in  his  Scandinavians  in  the  United  States,  388,  is  probably 
mistaken  in  stating  that  Eielsen  built  the  first  Norwegian  church  and 
organized  the  first  congregation  in  1842  at  Fox  River,  confusing  the  fact 
that  Eielsen  had  built  a  log  house  on  his  own  land,  and  held  religious  ser- 
vices in  the  loft,  with  the  possibility  of  the  formation  of  a  congregation. 
Eielsen's  biographer  makes  no  mention  of  his  organization  of  a  regu- 
lar congregation.  Brohough,  Elling  Eielsens  Liv  og  Virksomhed,  61. 


48  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [278 

southern  Wisconsin  ministering  to  the  Norwegians  of  all 
ages  and  beliefs. — and  all  for  the  stipend  of  |300  yearly.37 

f  *>  V 

One  of  the  results  of  these  labors,  was  a  little  book,  Reise 
bhindt  de  norske  Emigranter  i  "de  forenede  nordameri- 
kanske  Fristater,"  in  which  Dietrichson  gives  the  earliest 
detailed  account  of  the  settlements  in  Wisconsin  and  Illi- 
nois before  1846.  He  described  the  origin,  numbers,  con- 
ditions, and  prospects  of  each  community  in  his  wide 
parish.  At  Fox  River,  he  says  he  found  about  500,  who 
were  of  all  creeds,  mostly  dissenters,  including  150 
Mormons. 

Three  church  edifices  were  erected  in  1844-5,  and  dedi- 
cated within  a  short  time  of  each  other.  Dietrichson  dedi- 
cated one  at  Christiana,  Dane  County,  Wisconsin,  Decem- 
ber 19, 1844,  and  another  at  Pleasant  Valley  a  little  further 
west;  Clausen  dedicated  his  church  at  Muskego  on  March 
13,  1845. 38  All  were  simple  structures,  as  would  be  ex- 
pected; a  plain  table  was  the  altar,  and  the  baptismal 
font  was  hewn  out  of  an  oak  log.  But  they  served  none  the 
less  as  effective  and  inspiring  centers  of  the  religious  life 
of  the  settlements.  For  the  Muskego  church,  Even  Heg 
gave  the  land,  and  Mr.  Bakke  of  Drammen,  whose  prot6g6 
Clausen  was,  gave  $400  towards  construction.  Dietrichson 
left  his  two  churches  in  Koshkonong  in  1845,  and  returned 
to  Norway  where  he  remained  about  a  year.  Aided  by 
benevolent  friends  and  by  the  Norwegian  government,  he 
came  back  to  his  prairie  parishes  in  1846  for  a  final  stay  of 
four  years.39  But  his  ways  were  not  altogether  ways  of 
pleasantness,  nor  entirely  in  the  paths  of  peace.  The  rec- 
ords of  the  church,  and  his  own  story,  show  that  he  had 
more  than  one  stormy  time  with  his  people.40  He  departed 


37^finde  fra  Jubelfesterne  faa  Koshkonong    (1894),   54  ff;   Bothne, 
Kort  Udsigt,  839-842. 

38Dietrichson,  Reise  blandt  de  norske  Emigranter,  45  ff;  Minde  fra 
Jubelfesterne  paa  Koshkonong. 
*»Nordlyset,  Sept.  9,  1847. 

40Dietrichson,  Reise  blandt  de  norske  Emigranter,  57-67.     Some  of 
the  church  records  are  printed  in  The  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  July  21,  1895. 


279]  LATER   NORWEGIAN    IMMIGRATION  49 

for  Norway  in  1850,  and  never  again  was  in  America.41 

The  preceding  account  of  the  beginnings  and  progress 
of  the  earliest  Norwegian  settlements  in  Illinois  and  Wis- 
consin has  been  given  in  some  detail,  for  the  reason  that  the 
course  of  these  settlements,  in  a  very  broad  sense,  is  typical 
of  all  the  Norwegian  colonization  in  the  Northwest,  and  of 
the  Swedish  and  Danish  as  well.  In  the  later  chapter  on 
economic  conditions,  the  causes  which  led  these  people 
to  settle  upon  the  land  rather  than  in  the  cities  will  be  dis- 
cussed at  length.  Suffice  it  here  to  say  that  the  average 
immigrant  brought  only  a  small  amount  of  cash,  along 
with  his  strong  desire  for  land,  and  he  consequently  went 
where  good  land  was  cheap,  in  order  the  more  speedily  to 
get  what  he  wanted.  This  meant  that  he  would  push  out  on 
the  newly  accessible  government  land  in  Iowa,  Minnesota, 
and  the  Dakotas  in  turn.  So  the  transformation  of  the 
frontier  has  witnessed  the  continual  repetition  of  the  ex- 
periences of  the  early  Norwegian  immigrants  in  Illinois  and 
Wisconsin  in  the  years  from  1835  to  1850,  as  they  are  de- 
scribed in  this  and  the  preceding  chapters.  At  the  present 
time,  in  the  remoter  parts  of  the  Dakotas,  Montana,  Wash- 
ington, Oregon,  and  Utah,  the  same  story  is  being  retold  in 
the  same  terms  of  patience,  hardship,  thrift,  and  final 
success. 

41The    following  year   he  published   a   second  book,   Nogle   Ord  fra 
Pradikestolen  i  Amerika. 


CHAPTER  V. 

SWEDISH  IMMIGRATION  BEFORE  1850. 

When  the  Swedish  emigration  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury began,  it  is  doubtful  if  many  persons  in  Sweden  knew 
of  the  existence  of  the  descendants  of  their  compatriots  of 
the  seventeenth.  The  last  Swedish  pastor  of  Gloria  Dei 
Church  in  Philadelphia  died  in  1831,  and  there  is  no  evi- 
dence that  any  immigrant  after  1800  turned  his  steps  to- 
ward Philadelphia  or  the  valley  of  the  Delaware  expecting 
to  join  the  third  or  fourth  generation  of  Swedes  there.1 
Before  1840,  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  a  few  other 
places,  a  Swede  might  now  and  then  be  found.  One  of  these 
adventure-seeking  young  fellows  was  Erick  Alund,  who 
reached  Philadelphia  in  1823;  another  was  O.  C.  Lange 
who  arrived  in  Boston  in  1824,  and  by  1838  found  himself 
in  Chicago,  probably  the  first  of  that  mighty  company  of 
Swedes  which  has  made  Chicago  the  third  Swedish  city  in 
the  world.2  Olof  Gustaf  Hedstrom,  who  left  Sweden  in 
1825,  and  his  brother  Jonas,  were  influential  early  ar- 
rivals.3 But  the  number  of  such  men  could  not  have  been 
large,  for  ignorance  as  to  America  was  quite  as  dense  in 
Sweden  as  in  Norway,  the  name  being  all  but  unheard  of 
in  parts  of  the  kingdom.4 

Sixteen  years  elapsed  after  the  "Sloop  Folk"  landed  in 
New  York,  and  five  years  after  they  located  in  their  second 
American  home,  in  Illinois,  before  the  Swedish  immigration 

1Winsor,  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America,  IV,  488. 

Interview  with  Capt.  O.  C.  Lange  in  Chicago,  March,  1890.  He 
stated  that  he  was  the  only  Swede  in  Chicago  in  1838,  but  that  there 
were  thirty  or  forty  Norwegians  "who  were  doing  anything  for  a  living, 
even  begging," —  but  Capt.  Lange  was  an  ardent  Swede  and  despised 
Norwegians ! 

3Norelius,  Svenskarnes  Historia,  23-26. 

4Mikkelsen,  The  Bishop  Hill  Colony,  26. 

50 


281]  SWEDISH    IMMIGRATION    BEFORE    1850  51 

really  began.  The  first  party,  or  regular  company,  of 
Swedes,  consisting  of  about  twelve  families,  arrived  in  1841 
under  the  leadership  of  Gustav  Unonius,  a  young  man  who 
had  been  a  student  at  the  University  of  Upsala.5  It  was 
made  up  of  the  "better  folk",  and  included  some,  like 
Baron  Thott,  who  were  entitled  to  be  called  "Herr."6  The 
immigration  does  not  appear  to  have  been  induced  by  any 
religious  persecution  or  discontent,  but  was  purely  a  busi- 
ness venture  of  a  somewhat  idealistic  sort,  into  which  the 
immigrants  put  their  all,  in  the  hope  that  they  could  get 
a  more  satisfactory  return  than  they  could  from  a  like 
investment  in  Sweden. 

From  New  York  the  party  went  by  the  water  route  to 
Milwaukee,  following  in  the  wake  of  parties  of  Norwegians. 
There  they  met  Captain  Lange,  who  seems  to  have  per- 
suaded them  to  select  a  location  near  Pine  Lake — a  name 
that  would  certainly  attract  a  Swede — in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  present  town  of  Nashotah,  about  thirty  miles  west 
of  Milwaukee.  Here  they  were  later  joined  by  a  variegated 
assortment  of  characters  attracted  by  letters  which  Unon- 
ius wrote  to  newspapers  in  Sweden, — noblemen,  ex-army 
officers,  merchants,  and  adventurers,7  so  that  the  colony 
took  on  almost  as  motley  an  air  as  that  at  Jamestown  in 
the  first  years  after  1607.  While  they  hardly  could  have 
succeeded  under  more  favorable  circumstances,  they  were 
particularly  unfitted  by  their  previous  manner  of  living 
to  become  farmers  or  to  undergo  the  deprivations  and  hard- 
ships of  pioneering.  The  winter  of  1841-2  was  severe,  ,and 
their  poorly-built  houses  gave  inadequate  protection 
against  the  cold  of  January  and  February  in  Wisconsin; 

8Norelius,  Svenskarnes  Historia,  2  ff.  The  early  history  of  the 
Swedish  immigration  is  treated  in  a  much  more  complete  and  scholarly 
fashion  than  is  the  Norwegian,  in  the  works  of  Unonius,  Norelius,  and 
Peterson  and  Johnson.  For  this  reason,  and  because  of  the  similarity  of 
the  early  Swedish  and  Norwegian  movements,  the  Swedish  settlements 
are  not  followed  up  in  this  study  with  the  same  detail  as  the  Norwegian. 

"Unonius,  Minnen,  I,  5  ff ;  History  of  Waukesha  County,  W\s.,  748. 

7"and  a  large  proportion  of  criminals,"  Nelson,  Scandinavians  in  the 
United  States,  II,  117. 


52  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [282 

their  land  was  badly  tilled,  tho  they  labored  earnestly; 
and  their  first  crop  fell  short  of  their  necessities.  Their 
hope  of  leading  an  Arcadian  life  in  America  was  rudely 
shattered.  Captain  von  Schneidau,  late  of  the  staff  of 
King  Oscar,  was  a  farm  laborer,  and  Baron  Thott  became 
a  cook  for  one  of  the  settlers  in  order  to  get  a  bare  living.8 
Sickness,  misfortune,  want  of  labor,  and  lack  of  money  led 
to  almost  incredible  suffering  at  the  first,  and  some  of  the 
settlers,  like  Unonius  and  von  Schneidau,  went  to  Chicago, 
where  the  former  became  pastor  of  a  Swedish  congregation, 
and  the  latter  prospered  as  "the  most  skilful  daguerreo- 
typist,  probably,  in  the  whole  state."9 

Frederika  Bremer,  the  famous  Swedish  traveller, 
visited  both  the  Norwegian  and  the  Swedish  settlements  in 
Wisconsin  in  1850,  and  has  left  a  very  graphic  and  sympa- 
thetic account  of  the  Pine  Lake  colony  where  she  spent  a 
few  days.10  She  found  about  a  half  dozen  families  of 
Swedes.  "Nearly  all  live  in  log-houses,  and  seem  to  be  in 
somewhat  low  circumstances.  The  most  prosperous  seemed 
to  be  that  of  the  smith;  he,  I  fancy,  had  been  a  smith  in 
Sweden.  ...  ;  he  was  a  really  good  fellow,  and  had  a  nice 
young  Norwegian  for  his  wife;  also  a  Mr.  Bergman  who 
had  been  a  gentleman  in  Sweden,  but  who  was  here  a  clever, 
hard-working  peasant  farmer."11  At  one  of  the  houses  she 
met  twenty-one  Swedish  settlers.  The  failure  of  the  colony, 
to  Miss  Bremer's  mind,  was  not  altogether  due  to  circum- 
stances; the  settlers  at  first  "had  taken  with  them  the 
Swedish  inclination  for  hospitality  and  a  merry  life,  with- 
out sufficiently  considering  how  long  it  could  last.  Each 
family  built  for  itself  a  necessary  abode,  and  then  invited 

^History  of  Waukesha  County,  Wisconsin,  749. 

9Bremer,  Homes  of  the  New  World,  II,  214-217.  Miss  Bremer  re- 
lates how  Mrs.  von  Schneidau  "had  seen  her  first-born  little  one  frozen 
to  death  in  its  bed,"  and  how  Mrs.  Unonius  "that  gay,  high-spirited  girl, 
of  whom  I  heard  when  she  was  married  at  Upsala  to  accompany  her 
husband  to  the  New  World  .  .  .  had  laid  four  children  to  rest  in  foreign 
soil." 

10Ibid.,  225-235. 

.,  225;  Unonius,  Minnen,  II,  6  ff. 


283]  SWEDISH    IMMIGRATION    BEFORE    1850  53 

their  neighbors  to  a  feast.  They  had  Christmas  festivities 
and  Midsummer  dances."12 

Notwithstanding  the  hard  life  of  the  first  years  at 
Pine  Lake,  the  letters  from  well-educated  and  well-known 
men  like  Unonius,  especially  those  published  in  the  Swedish 
newspapers,  helped  to  stimulate  a  desire  for  emigration  in 
Sweden.  A  company  of  fifty,  from  Haurida  in  Smaaland, 
left  in  the  autumn  of  1844,  part  of  them  going  to  Wisconsin, 
and  at  least  one  family  going  to  Brockton,  Massachusetts, 
and  beginning  the  considerable  Swedish  settlement  in  that 
city.13  In  the  following  year,  five  families  were  influenced 
by  letters  from  a  Pine  Lake  settler,  to  leave  their  homes  in 
Ostergotland,  and  to  set  out  for  Wisconsin.  At  New  York, 
however,  they  were  persuaded,  probably  by  Pehr  Dahlberg, 
to  go  to  Iowa,  then  just  admitted  to  the  Union,  where  land 
was  supposed  to  be  better  than  at  Pine  Lake,  and  could  be 
had  at  the  same  price.  The  route  followed  was  an  unusual 
one  for  Scandinavian  immigrants, — from  New  York  to 
Pittsburg,  down  the  Ohio  River,  and  up  the  Mississippi. 
The  location  finally  chosen  was  in  Jefferson  County,  Iowa, 
about  forty-two  miles  west  of  Burlington;  and  the  settle- 
ment was  christened  New  Sweden.  To  it  many  immigrants 
from  the  parishes  of  Ostergotland  found  their  way  in  later 
years.  The  second  rural  settlement  of  the  Swedes  thus 
established  was,  quite  in  contrast  to  the  first  one,  distinctly 
successful  from  the  start.14 

The  first  Swedish  settlements  'in  Illinois,  may  be 
traced  to  the  efforts  of  the  brothers  Hedstrom  already 
mentioned.  Olof  visited  his  old  home  in  1833,  after  an 
absence  of  eight  years,  and  on  his  return  to  New  York  he 
was  accompanied  by  his  brother  Jonas.15  These  two  men 
influenced  the  course  which  Swedish  immigrants  were  to 

12Bremer,  Homes  of  the  New  World,  II,  214. 

13Norelius,  Svenskarnes  Historia,  27. 

14G.  T.  Flom,  "Early  Swedish  Immigration  to  Iowa,"  Iowa  Journal 
of  History  and  Politics,  III,  601  ff.  (Oct.,  1905)  ;  Norelius,  Svenskarnes 
Historia,  27. 

15Norelius,  Svenskarnes  Historia,  21. 


54  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [284 

take  in  America  down  to  1854,  in  much  the  same  way  as 
the  Nattestad  brothers  had  earlier  affected  the  Norwegians. 
After  several  years,  spent  presumably  in  New  York,  Jonas 
moved  into  Illinois  and  settled  in  the  township  of  Victoria, 
in  Knox  County.16  Olof  Hedstrom  was  converted  to 
Methodism  in  America,  and  became  a  zealous  minister  of 
that  church;  in  the  history  of  Methodism  in  New  York 
City  and  in  the  chronicles  of  Scandinavian  immigration, 
his  is  a  unique  figure.  The  needs  of  the  multiplying  hosts 
of  immigrants  of  all  sorts,  who  were  flocking  to  New  York, 
were  thoroughly  understood  by  the  Methodist  authorities  of 
that  city,  and  Hedstrom  was  put  in  charge  of  the  North 
River  Mission  for  Seamen.  His  "Bethel  Ship"  work  began 
about  1845,  a  time  when  there  was  great  need  for  a  helping 
hand  to  be  extended  to  the  Scandinavians,  among  other 
immigrants,  for  whom  agents,  "runners,"  and  "sharks" 
were  lying  in  wait.  The  Rev.  E.  Norelius,  the  cultivated 
and  scholarly  pastor  and  historian,  who  had  personal  ex- 
perience of  the  kindly  offices  of  Hedstrom,  declares  that  the 
missionary  was  a  father  to  the  Scandinavian  people  who 
came  to  America  by  way  of  New  York.17 

With  Olof  Hedstrom  offering  friendly  greeting,  help, 
and  advice  in  New  York,  and  working  in  connection  with 
his  brother  Jonas  in  Illinois,  no  prophetic  instinct  was 
needed  to  foretell  the  goal  which  would  be  ultimately 
sought  by  those  who  came  under  the  benevolent  ministra- 
tions of  this  Swedish  Methodist  preacher.  The  path  to 
Illinois  became  a  highway  for  multitudes  of  Swedes,  and 
that  State  was  to  the  Swedish  immigration  what  Wiscon- 
sin was  to  the  Norwegian. 

Swedish  settlement  on  a  large  scale  began  in  1846, 
with  the  founding  at  Bishop  Hill,  in  Henry  County,  Illi- 
nois, of  the  famous  Jansonist  colony,  whose  history  is 
exceedingly  interesting  and,  at  times,  highly  pathetic.  Not 
only  were  there  many  hundreds  of  Swedes  and  some  Nor- 
wegians grouped  together  in  a  single  county,  but  the  colony 

19Ibid.,  24-26;  Johnson  and  Peterson,  Svenskarne  i  Illinois,  286. 
17Norelius,  Svenskarnes  Historia,  21,  23-26. 


285]  SWEDISH   IMMIGRATION    BEFORE   1850  55 

was  also  an  experiment  in  communism,  based  on  peculiar 
religious  tenets.18 

The  Jansonist  movement  in  Sweden,  which  must  not 
be  confused  with  the  Jansenist  school  or  system  of  doctrine 
of  another  time  and  place  in  Western  Europe,  began  about 
1842  in  Helsingland,  in  the  prosperous  agricultural  prov- 
ince of  Norrland.19  For  fifteen  years  there  had  been  an 
undercurrent  of  dissent  in  the  Established  Church  in  that 
province,  led  by  Jonas  Olson,  who  called  his  followers  "De- 
votionalists."  The  agitation  was  carried  on  primarily 
against  the  general  ignorance  of  the  people  and  the  sloth 
of  the  clergy,  but  not  until  Eric  Janson  appeared  on  the 
scene  did  any  organization  of  the  dissenters  take  definite 
form.  When  he  moved  from  Wermland  to  Helsingland  in 
1844  and  published  the  high  claim  that  he  represented  the 
second  coming  of  Christ  and  was  sent  to  restore  the  purity 
and  glory  of  Christianity,  he  was  received  with  great  enthu- 
siasm by  the  restless  peasants,  and  accepted  as  a  divinely 
appointed  leader  who  should  gather  the  righteous  into  a 
new  theocratic  community.20 

The  progress  of  the  dissenting  sect  was  so  rapid  that 
the  Established  Church,  backed  by  the  civil  authorities, 
took  stern  measures  to  suppress  the  heresy.  It  must  be 
confessed  that  the  dissenters  continued  to  show  a  fanatical 
spirit,  and  gave  the  ecclesiastical  officers  special  cause  for 
alarm.  In  June,  1844,  for  example,  the  Jansonists  made  an 
immense  bonfire  near  Tranberg,  and  burned  as  useless  and 
dangerous,  all  the  religious  books  which  they  could  lay 
their  hands  on,  with  the  exception  of  the  Bibles,  hymn- 
books,  and  catechisms.  As  if  one  offense  of  this  kind  were 

18The  history  of  this  Swedish  settlement,  with  its  numerous  peculiar- 
ities, its  prosperity  and  its  misfortunes,  has  been  so  often  written  up 
with  considerable  detail,  that  only  the  outlines  of  it  are  given  here.  See 
Bibliography. 

"Mikkelsen,  The  Bishop  Hill  Colony,  ig  ft. 

20Ibid.,  25.  "The  glory  of  the  work  which  is  to  be  accomplished  by 
Eric  Janson,  standing  in  Christ's  stead,  shall  far  exceed  that  of  the  work 
accomplished  by  Jesus  and  his  Apostles," — quoted  in  translation  by  Mik- 
kelsen  from  Cateches,  af  Eric  Janson  (Soderhamn,  1846),  80. 


56  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [286 

not  enough  to  shock  the  pious  Lutherans  and  everywhere 
stir  up  the  zeal  of  the  Lutheran  clergy,  a  second  burning 
of  books  followed  in  October,  in  which  the  Bible  alone  was 
spared.21 

Janson  was  repeatedly  arrested  and  imprisoned;  his 
followers  were  subjected  to  the  same  treatment;  and 
finally,  a  price  was  put  upon  the  head  of  the  pestilent  arch- 
heretic.  It  was  these  persecutions,  supplemented  by  letters 
from  a  Swedish  immigrant  in  America,  which  turned  the 
thoughts  of  the  Jansonists  towards  the  United  States.  So 
it  happened  that  when  Janson  was  rescued  by  his  friends 
from  the  crown  officer  who  had  him  in  custody,  he  was 
spirited  off  over  the  mountains  to  Norway,  and  thence  to 
Copenhagen,  where  he  embarked  for  America.  In  New 
York  he  met  Olof  Olson,  the  "advance  agent/'  who  was 
sent  out  by  the  new  sect  in  1845  to  spy  out  the  better  coun- 
try where  there  was  no  established  church,  no  persecution 
for  conscience's  sake,  and  no  aristocracy.22  Olson  met  Olof 
Hedstrom  on  landing  in  New  York,  and  by  him  was  directed 
to  his  brother  Jonas  in  Illinois,  who  gave  the  new-comer 
a  hospitable  reception,  and  assistance  in  a  prospecting  tour 
of  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  and  Iowa.  Olson  decided  on  Illinois 
as  the  State  in  which  to  plant  the  proposed  colony.  On  the 
arrival  of  Eric  Janson  in  1846,  the  exact  site  in  Henry 
County  was  selected,  and  the  name  Bishop  Hill  given  it 
after  Biskopskulla,  Janson's  birthplace  in  Sweden.23 

Janson  appointed  leaders  for  the  would-be  emigrants, 
— captains  of  tens  and  of  hundreds — before  he  left  Sweden, 
and  under  their  guidance  several  parties  made  their  way 
to  Henry  County  in  1846,  usually  going  by  way  of  New 
York,  the  Erie  Canal,  and  the  Great  Lakes.  Nearly  1100 
persons  were  ready  to  emigrate,  but,  like  the  early  Nor- 
wegians, they  experienced  great  difficulty  in  securing 
passage,  being  compelled  to  go  in  companies  of  fifty  or  one 

21Mikkelsen,  The  Bishop  Hill  Colony,  22;  Norelius,  Svenskarnes  His- 
toria,  63. 

"Mikkelsen,  The  Bishop  Hill  Colony,  24. 

"Johnson  and  Peterson,  Svenskarne  i  Illinois,  26;  History  of  Henry 
County,  Illinois. 


287]  SWEDISH    IMMIGRATION    BEFORE    1850  57 

hundred  in  freight  vessels,  usually  loaded  with  iron.24 
The  greater  number  sailed  from  Gefle,  though  some  went 
from  Gothenburg  ajid  some  from  Stockholm.25 

The  greater  part  of  these  emigrating  Jansonists  were 
poor  peasants,  unable  from  their  own  means  to  bear  for 
themselves  and  their  families  the  great  expense  of  the  long 
journey  from  Helsingland  to  Illinois.  In  addition  to  other 
difficulties  some  of  them  had  to  purchase  release  from 
military  service.  It  was  to  solve  these  problems  of  poverty 
and  expense,  that  Janson  followed  the  example  of  other 
leaders  of  religious  sects,  even  of  the  early  Christian 
leaders,  and  instituted  community  of  goods  for  the  whole 
sect.  The  pretext  seems  to  have  been  religious,  but  from 
this  distance  it  is  clear  that  the  motive  of  the  leader  was 
essentially  economic  and  philanthropic.  Nothing  could 
better  attest  the  tremendous  earnestness  of  these  unedu- 
cated enthusiasts  than  their  implicit  obedience  to  the  com- 
mands of  Eric  Janson,  for  they  gave  all  they  had  into  his 
care  and  discretion — their  property,  their  families,  and 
themselves.  The  amounts  contributed  to  the  common 
treasury  after  the  sale  of  individual  property  varied 
greatly,  of  course.  Some  turned  in  almost  nothing,  while 
others  gave  sums  reaching  as  high  as  24,000  kroner,  or 
about  f  6,500.26 

The  methods  and  practices  of  the  sect  are  revealed,  in 
uns3Tinpathetic  and  perhaps  exaggerated  fashion,  in  a 
printed  letter,  dated  at  New  York,  May  23,  1847,  written 
by  one  who  found  himself  unequal  to  the  high  demands  of 
the  new  faith  and  its  self-appointed  apostle.27  This  back- 
slider, who  emigrated  with  the  rest,  tells  a  story  that 
sounds  strangely  like  accounts  of  the  action  of  more  recent 
sects  and  their  "divinely  ordained"  prophets  and  priest- 
esses. Janson  and  all  his  works  are  denounced  in  very 

24Swainson  in  Scandinavia,  Jan.,  1885. 

25Mikkelsen.  The  Bishop  Hill  Colony,  28. 

26Johnson  and  Peterson,  Svenskarne  i  Illinois,  28. 

27This  account  is  contained  in  a  small  pamphlet,  signed  O.  S.,  which 
was  unearthed  in  the  Royal  Library  in  Stockholm  while  the  author  was 
searching  there  in  1890  for  material  on  Swedish  emigration. 


5S  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [288 

bitter  terms.  After  a  five-months  voyage  not  more  than 
fifty  out  of  three  hundred,  says  the  writer  of  the  letter, 
were  well,  and  many  were  suffering  from  scurvy;  but 
Janson's  "prophets"  came  aboard  and  "tried  to  work 
miracles  and  heal  the  sick,"  even  damning  those  who  did 
not  believe  they  were  well  when  they  were  raised  up.  He 
further  says  that  the  Jansonists  were  warned  in  Illinois 
to  use  medicine  or  the  government  would  take  a  hand  in 
their  affairs.  The  letter  closes  with  a  statement  that  more 
than  a  hundred  had  already  left  the  society. 

The  colony-  had  a  homestead  at  the  outset,  for  Janson 
and  his  co-workers  purchased  for  $2000  a  tract  of  750  acres, 
part  of  which  was  under  cultivation.  By  the  end  of  1846, 
new  recruits  brought  the  number  in  the  settlement  up  to 
about  400  souls,  who  were  accommodated  in  log-houses, 
sod-houses,  dug-outs,  and  tents.  A  church  was  impro- 
vised out  of  logs  and  canvas,  and  services  were  held  daily 
at  half  past  five  in  the  morning  and  in  the  evening.  In 
spite  of  the  community  of  goods,  the  first  year  with  its 
crowding  brought  much  suffering;  the  funds  of  the  society 
were  depleted  by  the  expenses  of  the  great  journey  for  so 
many  people,  and  by  the  expenditures  for  land. 

With  the  coming  of  spring  in  1847,  the  settlement  be- 
came a  hive  of  industry.  Adobe  bricks  were  made,  a  new 
saw-mill  was  erected,  better  houses  were  built,  and  more 
land  was  bought  to  accommodate  the  new  arrivals.  By 
1850  the  community  owned  fourteen  hundred  acres  of  land, 
nearly  free  from  debt.  The  religious  or  economic  attrac- 
tiveness of  the  colony  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  its  pop- 
ulation in  1851  reached  the  considerable  figure  of  about 
eleven  hundred,28  nearly  one-third  of  the  total  population 
of  Henry  County,  notwithstanding  a  schism  in  1848  whose 
centrifugal  force  drove  upwards  of  200  from  the  fold,  and 
notwithstanding  the  epidemic  of  cholera  in  1849  which 
claimed  150  victims.  Among  these  hundreds  were  repre- 
sentatives of  almost  every  province  in  Sweden. 

28Swainson  puts  the  number  of  seceders  at  250,  and  asserts  that  they 
were  drawn  off  by  Jonas  Hedstrom,  the  Methodist.  Scandinavia,  Jan.. 
1885.  Mikkelsen,  The  Bishop  Hill  Colony,  33,  35,  37. 


SWEDISH   IMMIGRATION    BEFORE    1850  59 

The  communistic  principle  worked  well,  at  least  in  the 
first  years,  in  spite  of  the  severity  of  the  religious  disci- 
pline. The  land  was  thoroughly  cultivated.  The  growing 
of  flax  became  a  prominent  factor  in  the  prosperity  of  the 
colony,  and  from  this  crop  were  made  linen  and  carpeting 
which  found  a  ready  market,  the  product  of  the  looms 
reaching  30,579  yards  in  1851.29 

The  death  of  Eric  Janson  by  the  hands  of  a  Swedish 
adventurer,  John  Root  (or  Booth),  with  whom  he  had  a 
quarrel  of  long  standing,  removed  the  prophet  and  builder 
of  this  Xew  Jerusalem,  but  did  not  seriously  interrupt  its 
development.  In  fact  it  might  be  said  to  have  been  a 
benefit  to  the  colony,  for  Janson  was  not  a  careful  and 
skilful  man  of  business,  and  he  had  involved  the  com- 
munity in  debt.  To  relieve  this  pressure  of  obligation, 
Jonas  Olson,  Janson's  right-hand  man,  was  sent  out  with 
eight  others,  in  March,  1851,  to  seek  a  fortune  in  the  Cali- 
fornia gold  fields.30 

The  period  of  which  this  chapter  treats  ends  with 
1850;  but  inasmuch  as  that  year  marks  no  break  in  the 
history  of  Bishop  Hill,  it  will  be  well  here  to  finish  the 
sketch  of  the  development  of  that  colony.  On  learning  of 
the  death  of  Janson,  Olson  returned  at  once  from  Cali- 
fornia and  became  the  head  of  the  colony  after  February, 
1851.  Improvements  immediately  followed;  the  govern- 
ment, which  had  been  autocratic  or  theoretically  theo- 
cratic, became  more  and  more  democratic  under  Olson. 
Finally,  as  a  completion  of  this  broadening  evolution,  an 
act  of  the  Illinois  legislature  of  1853  incorporated  the 
Bishop  Hill  Colony,  and  vested  the  government  in  a  board 
of  seven  trustees  who  were  to  hold  for  life  or  during  good 
behavior,  their  successors  to  be  elected  by  the  community.31 

The  trustees  were  from  the  first  afflicted  with  a  specu- 
lative mania,  and  invested  in  all  sorts  of  enterprises — in 
grain,  in  lumber,  in  Galva  town  lots,  in  railroad  and  bank 

29Johnson  and  Peterson,  Svenskarne  i  Illinois,  335. 
«°/Wrf.,  39. 

31Act  of  January  17,  1853.    The  Charter  and  Bylaws  are  reprinted  in 
Mikkelsen,  The  Bishop  Hill  Colony,  73  ff.     (App.). 


60  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [290 

stock,  and  in  a  porkpacking  establishment.  Disaster  after 
disaster  followed  between  1854  and  1857,  when  a  general 
panic  prostrated  the  industries  of  the  country.  The  climax 
of  the  reckless  mismanagement  of  the  Colony  came  in 
1860,  and  the  corporation  went  into  the  hands  of  a  receiver, 
only  to  get  deeper  and  deeper  into  financial  and  legal  trou- 
bles. Individualization  of  property  took  place  in  1861, 
when  $592,798  was  distributed  among  415  shareholders, 
and  other  property  to  the  value  of  $248,861  was  set  aside 
to  pay  an  indebtedness  of  about  $118,000.32  The  last 
traces  of  communism  were  gone,  and  with  the  disappear- 
ance of  communism  went  also  the  old  religious  tenets  pe- 
culiar to  the  faith.  The  majority  of  the  Jansonists  joined 
the  Methodist  communion;  even  Jonas  Olson  deserted  and 
became  "an  independent  Second  [Seventh?]  Day  Ad- 
ventist."33 

Difficulties  continued,  however,  for  Olof  Johnson,  the 
chief  offending  trustee,  secured  his  appointment  as  one  of 
the  receivers.  Assessment  followed  assessment,  and  when 
the  totals  were  footed  up  the  chicanery  of  trustees  and  re- 
ceivers was  made  clear :  to  pay  an  original  debt  of  $118,403, 
these  ill-fated  people  of  the  Bishop  Hill  Colony  actually 
expended  in  cash  $413,124,  and  in  property  $259,786,  or  an 
aggregate  of  $672,910.34  Of  course  a  lawsuit  was  begun, 
and  the  "Colony  Case"  dragged  along  in  the  courts  for 
twelve  years,  to  be  finally  settled  by  compromise  in  1879, 
nine  years  after  the  death  of  Olof  Johnson.35 

Besides  the  numerous  companies  which  went  to  Bishop 
Hill,  many  others  between  1846  and  1850  sought  different 
localities  in  the  United  States.36  Some  remained  in  Chi- 
cago; some  built  homes  in  Andover,  Illinois;  others  began 
the  large  Swedish  settlement  in  Jamestown,  New  York; 

32Johnson  and  Peterson,  Svenskarne  i  Illinois,  44  ff. 

33Mikkelsen,  The  Bishop  Hill  Colony,  71. 

34Johnson  and  Peterson,  Svenskarne  i  Illinois,  49-52. 

36The  special  master  in  chancery  found  in  1868  that  Olof  Johnson 
was  indebted  to  the  Colony  in  the  sum  of  $109,613.29.  Mikkelsen,  The 
Bishop  Hill  Colony,  68. 

36Norelius,  Svenskarnes  Historia,  30-38. 


291]  SWEDISH    IMMIGRATION    BEFORE    1850  61 

while  still  others  were  persuaded  to  go  to  Texas,  thus  be- 
ginning the  only  considerable  permanent  settlement  of 
Scandinavians  in  the  Southern  States  before  1880,  with  the 
exception  of  settlements  in  Missouri.  During  these  years, 
knowledge  of  the  prosperous  condition  of  the  immigrants 
was  spreading,  in  the  usual  fashion,  into  every  province  of 
Sweden;  Smaland,  Helsingland,  Dalarne,  and  Ostergot- 
land,  were  especially  affected.  Not  merely  were  Jansonists 
and  dissenters  moved  to  emigrate,  but  men  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church  as  well;  a  Jansonist's  word  in  matters  of 
faith,  Scriptural  interpretation,  and  religious  practice  was 
worse  than  worthless  to  staunch  Lutherans,  but  there  was 
no  reason  to  doubt  the  accuracy  of  his  statements  regard- 
ing land,  wages,  prices,  and  opportunities  in  Illinois  or 
Iowa.  Even  Lutheran  clergymen  began  to  lead  little  com- 
panies of  their  adherents  to  the  "States,"  and  no  one  con- 
sidered it  a  mortal  sin  or  eternal  danger  to  follow  in  the 
footsteps  of  worldly-wise  heretics.37 

37Norelius,  Svenskarnes  Historia,  34. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  DANISH  IMMIGRATION. 

The  Danish  immigration  began  much  later  than  the 
Norwegian  and  Swedish,  and  its  proportions  were  incon- 
siderable until  after  the  Civil  War.  Not  until  1869  did 
the  annual  influx  of  Danes  reach  2,000.  Tho  the  popu- 
lation of  Denmark  was  and  is  somewhat  greater  than 
Norway's,  yet  the  Danish  immigration  has  never  in  any 
one  year  equalled  the  Norwegian,  and  in  but  seven  years 
has  it  been  more  than  one-half.  As  against  Norway's  total 
of  nearly  600,000  from  1820  to  1905,  Denmark's  is  only 
about  225,000.*  In  calculating  the  immigration,  however, 
a  large  allowance  must  be  made.  Since  the  duchies  of 
Schleswig  and  Holstein  were  acquired  by  Prussia  in  1864 
and  1866,  their  emigrants  have  of  course  been  recorded 
as  German.  Nevertheless,  taken  as  a  whole,  the  movement 
from  Denmark  has  lacked  momentum;  its  proportions  are 
relatively  small;  and  the  influence  of  the  Danes  in  the 
United  States  is  much  less  important  than  that  of  either 
of  the  other  Scandinavian  nationalities. 

The  causes  of  the  smaller  emigration  from  Denmark 
are  to  be  found  in  the  nature  of  the  people  and  in  the  con- 
ditions of  the  kingdom  itself.  Generally  speaking,  the 
Danes  are  not  highly  enterprising,  adventurous,  or  self- 
confident;  instead  of  daring  all  and  risking  all  for  possi- 
ble, even  probable,  advantage,  they  remain  at  home,  for, 

"Striving  to  better,  oft  we  do  mar  what's  well." 
Want  is  practically  unknown  in  Denmark  outside  the 
slums  of  Copenhagen.  The  condition  of  the  common 
people  has  steadily  improved  since  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  when  nearly  all  the  land  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  nobility;  at  the  present  time,  six-sevenths  is 
owned  by  the  peasants.  While  this  change  has  been  going 
on,  another,  of  even  greater  significance,  has  taken  place. 

1See  the  tables  in  Appendix. 

62 


293]  THE  DANISH  IMMIGRATION  63 

Improved  methods  of  cultivation,  in  the  course  of  a 
hundred  years,  have  multiplied  the  productive  power  of  the 
land  by  ten,  which  is  equivalent  to  increasing  tenfold  the 
available  area  of  the  kingdom.  No  nation,  except  the 
United  States  and  Canada,  has  in  recent  times  had  such 
agricultural  prosperity.2 

As  already  noted,  the  activity  of  the  Mormon  mis- 
sionaries drew  off  into  the  wilderness  of  Utah  nearly  2000 
Danes  between  1850  and  1860,  and  nearly  5000  more  in  the 
next  decade.  In  the  two  Prussian  duchies  after  1866,  the 
discontent  of  Danes  who  preferred  emigration  to  German 
rule  drove  a  large  number  to  the  United  States;  and  as 
these  were  far  from  being  sympathizers  with  Mormonism, 
they  found  homes  in  the  middle  west.  Settlements  sprang 
up  after  1870  in  Wisconsin,  at  Racine;  in  Iowa,  at  Elk 
Horn  in  Shelby  County  and  in  the  adjoining  counties  of 
Audubon  and  Pottawatomie ;  and  in  Douglas  County 
(Omaha),  Nebraska,  just  across  the  line  from  Pottawa- 
tomie County,  Iowa.  It  should  be  noted  in  this  connection 
that  all  the  Danish  settlements  save  those  in  Utah,  were 
well  within  the  frontier  line,  and  hence  are  not  to  be  classed 
as  pioneering  work,  for  which  the  Danes  have  shown  little 
inclination. 

The  efforts  of  the  Danish  Evangelical  Lutheran 
Church  in  America,  organized  at  Neenah,  Wisconsin,  in 
1872,  have  been  several  times  directed  deliberately  to  the 
organization  of  new  Danish  colonies,  always,  of  course, 
with  a  view  to  strengthening  the  church  or  to  carrying  out 
some  of  its  peculiar  ideas.  Of  the  four  colonies, — in  Shelby 
County,  Iowa,  in  Lincoln  County,  Minnesota,  in  Clark 
County,  Wisconsin,  and  in  Wharton  County,  Texas, — that 
in  Iowa  is  the  most  noteworthy  and  successful.  Soon  after 
1880,  the  church  secured  an  option  on  a  tract  of  35,000 
acres  in  Shelby  County  from  a  land  company.  In  return 
for  320  acres  to  be  given  by  the  company  to  the  church  for 
religious  and  educational  purposes  when  one  hundred 
actual  settlers  were  secured,  the  church  promised  to  use 

2Bille,  History  of  the  Danes  in  America,  8  n2,  summarizing  H.  Weite- 
meyer,  Denmark,  100. 


64  THE  SCAM  UN  AVIAN  ELEMENT  [294 

its  influence  to  secure  settlers  for  the  whole  tract.  The 
company  agreed  for  three  years  time  to  sell  only  to  Danes 
at  an  average  price  of  $7  per  acre,  for  the  first  year,  with 
an  advance  not  exceeding  $.50  per  year  for  each  following 
year.  The  end  of  the  first  year  found  more  than  the  re- 
quired number  of  settlers,  the  church  received  its  grant, 
and  still  maintains  its  worship,  a  parochial  school,  and  a 
high  school,  in  a  community  which  numbers  about  1,000 
Danes.  The  other  colonies  have  been  less  successful.3 

The  Danish  element  in  America  has  always  lacked 
unity  and  solidarity.  Even  in  their  European  home  the 
Danes  possess  no  strong  national  ambition,  and  no  national 
institution  claims  their  enthusiastic  and  undivided  sup- 
port. The  Danish  church,  or  churches,  has  gripped  its 
immigrant  sons  and  daughters  less  closely  than  similar 
organizations  among  the  Swedes  and  Norwegians.  It  is 
estimated  that  only  one  out  of  fifteen  of  the  Danes  in  the 
United  States  belongs  to  some  church,  while  one  out  of 
five  of  the  Swedes,  one  out  of  three  and  one-half  of  the 
Norwegians,  and  one  out  of  three  of  the  total  population 
of  the  country,  is  connected  with  an  ecclesiastical  organiza- 
tion.4 

One  reason  for  the  low  ebb  of  church  influence  among 
the  Danes  is  undoubtedly  the  wranglings  of  the  clergy 
over  matters  of  theology  and  polity,  a  continuation  of  the 
factional  differences  between  the  followers  of  Bishop 
Grundtvig  and  the  anti-Grundtvigians  or  Inner  Mission 
people  in  the  years  1854-1895.  In  its  beginning,  the 
Danish  Lutheran  Church  in  America  unanimously  adopted 
this  resolution :  "We,  the  Danish  ministers  and  congrega- 
tions, hereby  declare  ourselves  to  be  a  branch  of  the  Danish 
National  Church,  a  missionary  department  established  by 
that  church  in  America."5  The  government  of  Denmark 

8Bille,  History  of  the  Danes  in  America,  26-28;  A.  Dan,  "History  of 
the  Danish  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church  in  America,"  in  Nelson,  History 
of  the  Scandinavians,  I,  166-171. 

4Nelson,  History  of  the  Scandinavians,  II,  49. 

5Bille,  History  of  the  Danes  in  Amerika,  18. 


295]  THE  DANISH  IMMIGRATION  65 

recognized  this  relation;  graduates  of  the  University  of 
Copenhagen,  who  received  calls  to  churches  in  America, 
were  ordained  by  a  bishop  in  Denmark,  and  were  appointed 
by  the  King  as  regular  ministers  in  the  Danish  Church; 
and  since  1884  the  Danish  Government  has  made  a  small 
annual  appropriation  for  the  education  of  ministers  for  the 
American  branch  of  the  Danish  Church.  This  allowance 
was  at  first  spent  in  Denmark,  but  since  1887,  in  the 
United  States.6  But  with  all  this  effort  at  maintaining 
unity  and  continuity,  the  American  branch  has  not  been 
united,  peaceable  or  effective. 

If  the  test  of  supporting  educational  institutions  for 
their  own  people  be  applied  to  the  Danes,  the  same  defi- 
ciency of  interest  and  contributions  as  in  matters  eccle- 
siastical, will  be  revealed.  The  attempt  of  the  Grundt- 
vigians  to  set  up  the  peculiar  "high  schools"  which  they 
maintained  in  Denmark,  for  instruction  of  the  common 
people  in  Scandinavian  history,  mythology,  religion, 
language,  and  literature,  all  in  Danish,  was  doomed  to 
failure.7  The  first  of  these  schools  was  located  at  Elk 
Horn,  Iowa,  in  the  midst  of  the  largest  Danish  settlement 
in  the  United  States,  yet  in  the  fifteen  years  after  its 
establishment  in  1878  the  average  attendance  never  reached 
forty.  Four  other  schools,  in  Ashland,  Michigan,  in  Ny- 
sted,  Nebraska,  in  Polk  County,  Wisconsin,  and  in  Lincoln 
County,  Minnesota,  all  established  between  1878  and  1888, 
suffered  from  like  indifference  and  lack  of  financial  help; 
not  one  averaged  thirty  pupils  per  year.  Aside  from 
tuition,  the  contributions  of  the  Danes  for  educational 
purposes  did  not  reach  fifty  cents  per  communicant  during 
any  consecutive  five  years  up  to  1894.8  This  is  a  poor 
showing  alongside  the  three  dollars  per  communicant  con- 
tributed by  the  Norwegians  when  they  were  building 
Decorah  College  in  1861  to  1865.9 

•Bille,  History  of  the  Danes  in  America,  i8n.  The  appropriation  was 
$840  per  year. 

''Ibid.,  21 ;  Kirkelig  Samler,  1878,  320. 

8Bille,  History  of  the  Danes  in  America,  16. 

9Bille,  History  of  the  Danes  in  America,  15;  Estrem,  "Historical  Re- 
view of  Luther  College,"  in  Nelson,  History  of  the  Scandinavians,  II,  24. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

A  HALF  CENTURY  OF  EXPANSION  AND  DISTRIBUTION, 
1850-1900. 

While  the  immigration  movement  from  Norway  and 
Sweden  was  well-established  by  1850,  and  certain  to  ex- 
pand, it  was  numerically  unimportant  when  compared 
with  that  from  some  other  countries  of  Europe.  In  1849 
the  influx  from  all  Scandinavia  was  slightly  more  than  one 
per-cent  of  the  total  immigration  from  Europe.  Yet  the 
rising  stream  had,  by  1850,  worn  for  itself  a  clear  and 
definite  channel  from  eastern  ports  like  New  York  and 
Boston  to  such  gateways  to  the  Northwest  as  Chicago  and 
Milwaukee;  and  through  these  it  continued  to  flow  out  over 
the  wilderness  of  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley  extending 
north  of  the  Missouri  and  Illinois  Rivers  and  west  of  the 
Great  Lakes.  For  more  than  a  half  century  there  have 
been  relatively  few  variations  from  this  course,  tho  in 
the  later  decades,  with  an  increase  in  the  proportion  of 
skilled  laborers  among  the  incoming  thousands,  certain 
eastern  cities  have  detained  a  considerable  percentage. 

No  other  marked  change  in  the  character  and  quality 
of  the  immigrants  has  developed  since  1850,  nor  have  any 
new  motives  appeared,  except  in  the  case  of  the  Danes,  to 
be  discussed  later.  In  a  word,  the  Scandinavian  immigra- 
tion since  1850  is  simply  the  earlier  Scandinavian  immigra- 
tion enlarged  in  numbers,  with  broader  and  deeper  sig- 
nificance. The  areas  of  interest  in  emigration  in  Europe 
gradually  extended  to  every  part  and  every  class  of  the 
three  Northern  kingdoms;  and  the  localities  attractive  to 
Scandinavians  in  the  United  States,  expanded  until  eight 
contiguous  States  in  the  Old  Northwest  and  the  Newer 
Northwest  showed  each  a  foreign-born  population  of 
Northmen  numbering  more  than  thirty  thousand.  In  the 
State  of  Minnesota  they  now  reach  close  to  a  quarter  of  a 
million.1 

1After  1850  the  book  of  Frederika  Bremen,  Homes  of  the  New 
World,  is  credited  with  large  influence  in  Sweden  among  the  better  classes. 
See  McDowell,  "The  New  Scandinavia",  Scandinavia,  Nos.  5-8. 

66 


297]  EXPANSION  AND  DISTRIBUTION,  1850-1900 


67 


The  total  recorded  Scandinavian  immigration,  accord- 
ing to  the  statistics  of  the  United  States,  from  1820  to 
1912,  is  in  round  numbers  2,200,000.  According  to  the 
statistics  of  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark,  which  may  be 
disregarded  for  inaccuracy  before  1850,  the  total  falls 
about  142,000  short  of  this  figure,  a  difference  which  may 
be  easily  enough  accounted  for  by  persons  leaving  those 
countries  for  a  more  or  less  indefinite  stay  in  other  parts 
of  Europe,  before  starting  for  America.2  The  American 
statistics  in  later  years  have  sometimes  shown  larger  num- 
bers than  the  Swedish,  but  the  discrepancy  is  accounted 
for  by  the  fact  that  a  great  number  of  emigrants  from  Fin- 
land have  passed  through  Sweden  on  their  way  to  America 
and  therefore  are  counted  as  Swedes.3  The  totals  by  de- 
cades with  the  percentages  of  the  whole  immigration  for 
the  decades,  is  as  follows:4 


Per  cent 


Denmark 

1820-1830  

189 

1831-1840  

1,063 

1841-1850  

539 

1851-1860  

3,749 

1861-1870  

17,094 

1871-1880  

3i,77i 

1881-1890  

88,132 

1891-1900  

52,670 

1901-1910  

65,285 

Norway        Sweden 

1,201 

13,903 

20,931 

109,298 

94823  115,922 

176,586          391,733 

95,264          230,679 

190,505          249,534 


Total  Sc. 

of 

280 

.2 

2,264 

•4 

14,442 

.8 

24,680 

•9 

126,392 

5-2 

242,516 

8.6 

656,451 

12.5 

378,613 

9-8 

505,524 

5-7 

2Nelson  in  his  History  of  the  Scandinavians,  I,  253  ff.,  gives  some 
careful  and  excellent  tables  of  statistics  compiled  from  official  publications 
of  the  United  States  and  of  the  three  Scandinavian  kingdoms.  Too 
much  reliance  should  not  be  put  upon  the  earlier  figures  derived  from 
either  source.  It  will  also  be  noted  that  the  European  figures  are  in 
many  cases  given  in  even  fifties  and  hundreds,  which  savors  of  estimates 
rather  than  of  exact  statistics.  Nelson,  p.  244,  declares  that  these  foreign 
statistics,  so  far  as  they  go,  are  more  reliable  than  the  American. 

3Sundbarg,  Sweden  (English  Translation),  132;  Sundbarg,  Bidrag  till 
Utvandringsfrdgan  fraii  Befolkningsstatistisk  Synpunkt,  34  ff. 

4The  statistics  of  Norwegian  and  Swedish  immigration  were  combined 
down  to  1868,  but  for  convenience  here  the  combination  is  continued  to 
the  end  of  the  decade.  Statistical  Abstract  of  the  U.  S.  (1912),  no. 


68  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [298 

The  fluctuations  of  the  annual  immigration  have  been 
very  great,  as  an  inspection  of  the  accompanying  chart 
and  the  tables  in  Appendix  I,  will  readily  show.  The 
addition  of  other  lines  to  this  chart  indicating  the  fluctu- 
ations in  the  numbers  of  immigrants  from  Germany  and 
Ireland,  demonstrates  that  these  rather  striking  variations 
were  chiefly  caused  by  conditions  and  prospects  in  Amer- 
ica, rather  than  by  circumstances  in  Europe.  In  1849  the 
total  immigration  of  Norwegians  and  Swedes  passed  2,000, 
and  even  reached  3,400,  but  the  terrible  scourge  of  cholera 
in  that  year  under  which  so  many  of  the  Scandinavians 
in  the  West  fell,  caused  a  falling  off  of  more  than  half  in 
1850.  After  the  panic  of  1857,  the  Danish  immigration 
fell  from  1,035  to  252  in  one  year,  while  the  total  from  the 
Northern  lands  fell  steadily  from  2,747  to  840  in  1860. 

The  Civil  War  disturbed  comparatively  little  the  con- 
ditions favoring  Scandinavian  immigration,  for  the  North- 
west was  never  in  danger  of  invasion,  and  nominal  prices 
for  farm  produce  ranged  higher  and  higher.  Furthermore, 
the  Homestead  Act  of  1862  gave  new  and  cumulative  im- 
petus to  the  immigration  which  sought  farming  lands.5 
So  from  a  total  of  850  in  1861  (the  statistics  of  Norway 
show  8,900  emigrants  for  that  year,  and  those  of  Sweden, 
1,087),  the  numbers  gradually  increased,  in  spite  of  the 
war,  to  7,258  in  1865.  The  panic  of  1873  did  not  affect  the 
Scandinavian  movement  so  immediately  and  seriously  as 
might  at  first  thought  be  expected,  probably  because  the 
Northmen  were  seeking  farms  in  the  West,  and  also  be- 
cause the  farmers  as  a  class  are  about  the  last  to  feel  the 
effects  of  financial  crises  like  that  of  1873.  As  the  depres- 
sion deepened,  letters  from  America  to  Northern  Europe 
lost  their  tone  of  buoyancy  and  enthusiasm ;  the  eastward 
flow  of  passage-money  and  prepaid  tickets  almost  ceased. 
At  the  same  time  a  series  of  good  crops  in  the  three  Scandi- 
navian countries  caused  a  rise  of  wages  about  1873,  doub- 
ling them  in  some  instances.6  Consequently  the  current 

^United  States  Statutes  at  Large  (1861-2),  392  ff. 

•Young,  Labor  in  Europe  and  America,  676, — quoting  and  summariz- 
ing from  a  report  to  the  Secretary  of  State  by  C.  C.  Andrews,  United 
States  Minister  to  Sweden,  Sept.  24,  1873. 


299]  EXPANSION  AND  DISTRIBUTION,,  1850-1900  69 

of  immigration  lost  force  and  volume  for  several  years,  the 
totals  dropping,  in  round  numbers,  from  35,000  in  1873,  to 
19,000  in  1874,  and  to  11,000  in  1877. 

After  the  high-water  mark  of  105,326  in  1882,  reached 
during  the  revival  of  business  from  1879  to  1884,  the  totals 
did  not  again  fall  below  40,000  Scandinavian  immigrants 
per  year,  until  after  the  industrial  and  financial  stagnation 
of  1893  to  1896 ;  62,000  in  1893  became  33,000  in  1894,  and 
19,000  in  1898.  With  the  prosperity  of  the  first  years  of  the 
new  century  in  the  United  States,  the  number  again  passed 
50,000,  reaching  another  climax  in  the  77,000  of  1903. 

In  general,  the  variations  of  the  curves  for  the  three 
nationalities  under  discussion  have  been  nearly  co-incident, 
as  for  example  the  high  points  in  1873  and  1882,  and  the 
low  points  in  1877,  1885,  and  1898.  The  Danish  immigra- 
tion did  not  rise  proportionately  with  the  other  two,  espe- 
cially in  1903,  probably  because  of  the  democratizing  of 
land-ownership  in  Denmark,  and  because  of  the  remarkable 
improvement  in  methods  of  cultivation  in  the  course  of  the 
nineteenth  century.7  No  such  decided  improvements  took 
place  in  the  other  peninsular  kingdoms. 

Another  feature  of  the  fluctuation  is  entitled  to  some 
consideration.  In  proportion  to  the  population  of  those 
nations,  the  emigration  from  Norway  and  Sweden  since 
1870  has  been  very  large,  and  such  drafts  as  were  made  in 
the  years  1882  or  1903  could  not  be  expected  to  keep  up. 
The  periodicity  of  the  ripening  of  a  good  "crop"  of  eligible 
emigrants  for  the  great  American  West  seems  to  have  been 
since  1877  from  five  to  eight  years.  In  this  connection  it 
is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  the  population  in  each  of  the 
Scandinavian  kingdoms,  notwithstanding  the  great  emigra- 
tions, has  steadily  tho  slowly  increased  since  1850.8  For 

7J.  H.  Bille,  "History  of  the  Danes  in  America",  Transactions  of  the 
Wis.  Acad.  of  Sciences,  Arts,  and  Letters,  IX,  8  n.,  citing  H.  Weitemeyer, 
Denmark,  100. 

8For  Denmark,  the  increase  has  been  about  i%  per  year  since  1870; 
Sweden  shows  a  slightly  smaller  increase,  falling  as  low  as  Yflo  in  1890; 
Norway  has  a  still  smaller  average  increase  than  Sweden,  estimated  by 
Norwegian  authority  "1865-1890,  .65%".  The  same  writer  adds:  "The 


70  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [300 

the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  figures 
for  the  increase  were,  Denmark,  16.6%,  Norway,  10.6%, 
Sweden  7.3%,  United  States  20%. g  In  this  statistical  dis- 
tribution, account  must  also  be  taken  of  the  Scandinavians 
of  the  second  generation,  born  in  this  country  of  foreign- 
born  parents,  since  this  element,  racially  speaking,  is  just 
as  much  an  alien  stock,  with  its  inheritance  of  tendencies, 
temperament,  and  passions,  as  were  the  original  immi- 
grants. The  census  of  1910  enumerated  among  the  foreign- 
born  and  the  native-born  of  specified  foreign  parents:10 

Native  white  having 

Foreign-born          both  parents  born  Total 
white                 in  specified  country 

Danes    181,621                        147,648  329,269 

Norwegians  403,858                        410,951  814,809 

Swedes   665,183                        546,788  1,211,971 


1,250,662  1,105,387  2,356,049 

To  these  must  be  added  still  another  group,  made  up  of 
those  persons  having  a  father  born  in  Norway,  Sweden,  or 
Denmark,  and  a  mother  born  in  one  of  the  other  two 
countries,  in  other  words,  persons  of  pure  Scandinavian 
descent.  The  number  of  such  in  1910  was  72,152.  It  does 
not  include,  be  it  noted,  those  persons  of  equally  pure 
Norse  blood  whose  parents,  one  or  both,  were  born  in  the 
United  States.  The  minimum  number  of  Scandinavians, 
then,  in  the  United  States  in  1910,  who  must  be  taken  into 
account  in  all  calculations  and  estimates  of  power  and 
influence  exercised  by  that  factor  of  the  population,  is 
2,428,201.  If  it  were  desired  to  bring  the  estimate  up 
to  date,  the  immigration  of  1910-1913  and  an  approxima- 
tion of  the  increase  of  the  native-born,  would  have  to  be  in- 
Norwegian  race,  in  the  course  of  the  fifty  years  from  1840  to  1890  must 
have  about  doubled  itself,  which  is  equivalent  to  an  annual  growth  of 
about  1.4%."  Norway,  103;  Statesman's  Y ear-Book,  1000,  491,  1047,  1050. 

Supplementary  Analysis  of  I2th  Census,  31-33. 

10These  figures  are  drawn  from  the  tables  in  the  Census  Reports, 
79/0,  Population,  I,  875  ff.  The  statistics  generally  deal  only  with  white 
persons,  thus  excluding  blacks  and  mulattoes  of  the  Danish  West  Indies. 


301]  EXPANSION  AND  DISTRIBUTION,  1850-1900  71 

eluded,  and  the  grand  total  of  persons  of  pure  Northern 
stock  would  not  be  far  from  2,700,000  at  the  present 
time  (1913). 

The  distribution  of  this  vast  company  to  the  different 
States  of  the  Union  is  a  consideration  of  primary  import- 
ance. The  detailed  analysis  of  the  motives,  processes,  and 
results  of  the  occupation  of  the  Northwestern  States  by  the 
children  of  the  Northlands,  belongs  in  later  chapters.11 
The  reasons  why  the  stream  flowed  to  the  north  of  Mason 
and  Dixon's  Line  are  a  combination  of  climate  and  a  fear 
and  hatred  of  slavery.  If  the  movement  from  Scandinavia 
had  begun  fifty  years  earlier,  before  the  anti-slavery  agi- 
tation became  acute,  the  New  Norway  and  the  New  Sweden 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  would  doubtless  still  have  been 
in  the  North  and  probably  in  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Michigan, 
for  very  much  the  same  reason  that  the  Western  Reserve 
was  a  New  Connecticut. 

Desiring  ownership  of  good  agricultural  land  above 
all  else,  and  finding  after  1835  that  the  best  and  cheapest 
was  to  be  found  along  the  advancing  frontier  west  of  a 
north-and-south  line  drawn  through  Chicago,  the  men 
from  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark  followed  their  dis- 
tant cousins  of  New  England  and  the  Middle  States  in  the 
great  trek  into  the  Any-Man's-Land  of  the  fertile  upper 
Mississippi  Valley.12  For  more  than  two  decades  after 
the  Civil  War,  tho  slavery  no  longer  existed  in  the 
South,  that  region  was  still  in  the  depression  and  uncer- 
tainty of  the  post-bellum  industrial  disorganization,  and 
hence  unattractive  to  immigrants  of  any  class.  So  the  tide 
continued  to  run  high  in  the  Northwest  and  spread  wider 
and  wider  because  of  the  traditions  of  two  generations,  and 
because  of  the  attracting  power  of  the  Scandinavian  mass 
already  comfortably  and  solidly  settled  there. 

"See  chapters  VIII-X. 

12The  "line  which  limits  the  average  density  of  2  to  a  square  mile, 
is  considered  as  the  limit  of  settlement — the  frontier  line  of  population". 
Eleventh  Census,  Report  on  Population,  I,  xviii.  See  R.  Mayo-Smith  in 
Political  Science  Quarterly,  til,  52. 


72  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [302 

The  first  States  of  the  Northwest  into  which  the  Nor- 
wegians and  Swedes    penetrated,    as    has  been  described 
above,  were  Illinois  and  Wisconsin;  and  in  the  censuses 
of  1850  and  1860  Wisconsin  held  first  place  in  the  number 
of  these  aliens,  showing  an  increase  from  8,885  to  23,265. 13 
In  1850,  Iowa,  in  the  "far  west,"  ranked  fourth,  with  611. 
Minnesota,  which  then  stretched  away  to  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, had  4  Swedes,  7  Norwegians,  and  1  Dane.14    By  1860 
Iowa  was  passed  by  Minnesota  which  then  had  11,773,  and 
thenceforward  the  Scandinavians  were  to  keep  close  step 
with  the  westward  march  of  the  frontier.    In  1870  Minne- 
sota took  first  place,  with  58,837,  a  position  which  the 
State  has  continued  to  hold.     In  1890  she  had  within  her 
borders  236,670  foreign-born   Northmen,  and  enough   of 
the  second  generation  to  make  her  Scandinavian  population 
466,365,  or  about  one-fifth  that  of  Denmark  or  Norway. 
The  order  of  Minnesota,  Wisconsin,  Illinois,  and  Iowa  held 
good  for  1870  and  1880,  but  Wisconsin  and  Illinois  changed 
places  in  the  reports  of  1890  and  1900.    The  Dakotas,  as  one 
Territory,  received  their  first  Norse  settler  in  1858,  but 
when  the  census  of  1880  was  taken  there  were  17,869,  and 
in  1890,  when  the  Territory  was  divided  into  two  States, 
the  Scandinavian  contingent  was  more  than  65,000  strong.15 
Nebraska  illustrated  in  a  similar  manner  the  widening 
overflow  of  the  steady  stream  out  of  the  European  North ; 
her  population  of  Scandinavian  birth  which  numbered  only 
3,987  in  1870,  grew  by  direct  entry  of  immigrants,  and  by 
the  secondary  movement  of  early  immigrants  out  of  the 
middle  Northwest,  to  16,685  in  1880,  and  to  40,107  of  for- 
eign-born in  1900.    According  to  this  last  census,  Nebraska 
counted  38,914  native  persons  of  foreign-born  Scandinavian 
parents,  showing  that  the  second  generation  did  not  fall 
much  behind  the  first  in  the  habit  of  frontier-seeking.16 

In  the  rush  of  gold-seekers  into  California  after  1848 
were  many  Danes  and  Swedes,  who  gave  that  State  in  1860 

13For  the  tables  illustrating  this  discussion,  see  Appendix. 
14Gronberger,  Svenskarne  i  St.  Croixdalen,  3  ff. 
15Sparks,  History  of  Winneshiek  County,  Iowa,  in. 
18See  Appendix  I. 


303]  EXPANSION  AND  DISTRIBUTION,  1850-1900  73 

fifth  rank  as  to  the  number  of  Scandinavians;  by  1890 
these  numbered  about  42,000,  of  whom  the  greater  part 
were  of  the  two  nationalities  just  named.    Another  frontier, 
region  which  gained  from  the  Danish  immigration  between 
1850  and  1860  was  the  Territory  of  Utah,  for  the  Mormon 
missionaries  seem  to  have  been  particularly  successful  in 
Denmark,  and  nearly  every  convert  became  an  immigrant. 
Quite  in  advance  of  their  invasion  of  Dakota,  more  than 
2,000  Danes  had  settled  in  the  Mormon  Territory,  and  ten^ 
years  later  Utah  counted  nearly  twice  as  many  Scandinavi-^ 
ans  as  Nebraska,  seven-tenths  being  Danes. 

The  increasing  density  of  this  Scandinavian  popula-  k^^V  / 
tion  in  certain  localities, — what  might  be  called  its  vertical  v  N  ty  /^ 
distribution — is  strikingly  illustrated  in  both  urban  an4 
rural  communities.  Chicago  had  barely  emerged  from  the 
Fort  Dearborn  stage  when  the  first  Scandinavians  walked 
its  streets.  Yet  within  two  generations  there  were  found 
inside  of  her  wide-stretching  borders  more  than  100,000 
Swedes,  Norwegians,  and  Danes  of  foreign  birth,  and 
enough  of  the  second  generation  to  give  her  more  than  190,- 
000,  so  that  the  city  at  the  head  of  Lake  Michigan  was  next 
after  Copenhagen,  Stockholm,  and  Christiania, — the  largest 
Scandinavian  city  in  the  world.17  By  a  similar  calculation, 
Minneapolis  would  rank  sixth  or  seventh. 

Rockford,  Illinois,  received  the  first  of  its  signally 
prosperous  Swedish  colony  about  1853;  by  1865  the  city 
had  2,000  Swedes.18  The  census  of  1910  credits  Rockford^ 
with  10,000  foreign  born  Swedes,  and  a  total  of  Swedish 
parentage  reaching  close  to  19,000.  One  of  the  west-central^ 
counties  of  Minnesota,  Otter  Tail,  counted  (1900)  more 
than  half  of  its  45,000  population  of  pure  Scandinavian 
blood  of  the  first  and  second  generation  of  immigrants.  Polk, 
county,  newer  and  farther  north  in  the  same  State,  reveals 
almost  sixty  per-cent  of  the  same  sort  of  population  in  a 
total  of  35,000.  For  some  of  the  still  newer  and  more 

17Svenska  Folkets  Tidning,  Jan.  i,  1806,  estimated  the  totals  as  fol- 
lows:    Swedes,  100,000,  Norwegians,  62,000,  and  Danes,  35,000! 
18Kaeding,  Rockfords  Svenskar,  27,  35. 


74  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [304 

sparsely  settled  counties  even  larger  percentages  might  be 
obtained. 

A  closer  analysis  of  the  tables  of  population  reveals 
some  further  facts  as  to  the  distribution  of  the  different 
nationalities.  The  Swedes  are  the  most  numerous  in  Min- 
nesota, Illinois,  Iowa,  Michigan,  Nebraska,  and  Kansas; 
the  Norwegians  predominate  in  Wisconsin,  North  Dakota, 
and  South  Dakota,  and  nearly  equal  the  Swedes  in  Minne- 
sota where  each  passes  200,000.  The  Danes  are  strongest— 
they  can  hardly  be  called  a  very  important  factor  in  any 
State — in  Iowa,  Minnesota,  Wisconsin,  Illinois,  and  Ne- 
braska; in  each  State  they  have  more  than  25,000.  Another 
feature  of  this  varying  density  of  the  three  groups  has  to  do 
with  the  cities.  Chicago,  Rockford,  Minneapolis,  St.  Paul, 
and  Duluth  account  for  a  large  proportion  of  the  Swedes 
of  Illinois  and  Minnesota,  and  represent  the  later  rather 
than  the  earlier  stages  of  distribution.  Outside  of  the 
cities  mentioned,  the  Norwegians  in  Minnesota  outnumber 
the  Swedes  by  some  52,000.  In  North  Dakota,  the  Nor- 
wegians are  72%  of  the  foreign-born  Scandinavian  popu- 
lation, in  South  Dakota,  56%,  and  in  Wisconsin,  60%, 
while  in  Illinois  the  Swedes  are  about  70%,  and  in  Michi- 
gan and  Nebraska,  63%  and  59%  respectively.  The  Danes 
reach  their  highest  percentages  of  the  Scandinavian  for- 
eign-born in  Utah,  50%,  in  Nebraska,  34%,  and  in  Iowa, 
23%.  Large  numbers  of  the  later  immigrants,  especially 
of  the  skilled  Swedish  laborers,  have  found  occupation  in 
New  York  and  Brooklyn,  Boston  and  Worcester,  Hartford 
and  Providence.  These  have  raised  the  proportion  of  the 
Swedes  in  the  United  States  living  in  cities  of  more  than 
25,000,  to  36%,  while  only  28%  of  the  Danes,  and  19%  of 
the  Norwegians  were  similarly  located  in  1900.19 

Climate,  particularly  the  mean  temperature,  has  also 
played  considerable  part  in  the  choice  by  the  immigrants 
from  Northern  Europe  of  the  sites  for  their  new  homes, 
though  it  is  an  open  question  whether  they  would  not  have 
been  established  where  they  were  and  when  they  were 

19Census  Reports,  /poo,  Population,  I,  Tables  33  and  35. 


305]  EXPANSION  AND  DISTRIBUTION,  1850-1900  75 

even  if  the  climate  were  different.  Certain  it  is  that  the 
few  Icelandic  settlements  are  situated  in  the  extreme 
northern  part  of  Minnesota  and  North  Dakota,  and  in 
Southern  Manitoba.20  South  of  them  come,  in  order,  the 
zones  of  densest  Norwegian  population,  49°  to  42°,  of  the 
Swedish,  48°  to  40°,  and  of  Danish,  44°  to  38°.  The  three 
nationalities  thus  occupy  relatively  the  same  latitudinal 
position  in  America  as  in  their  homes  in  the  Old  North.21 

Summarizing  the  matter  of  location,  the  great  bulk 
of  the  Scandinavian  immigrants  went  into  the  Northwest, 
78%  of  them  during  the  first  fifty  years  of  the  movement, 
and  about  70%  of  the  total.  Out  of  the  immigration  of  the 
different  nationalities,  81%  of  the  Norwegians  are  in  the 
Northwest,  60%  of  the  Danes,  and  59%  of  the  Swedes,  the 
percentage  of  the  last  being  brought  down,  in  comparison 
with  the  Norwegians,  by  the  fact  that  nearly  100,000 
Swedes  are  found  in  Massachusetts,  New  York,  and  Penn- 
sylvania. 

The  Civil  War  occurred  before  the  numbers  and  ex- 
pansion of  the  Norse  element  of  the  country's  population 
had  much  passed  a  promising  beginning ;  the  75,000  present 
in  1860  could  not  be  expected  to  play  any  large  and  leading 
role.  Yet  the  one  dramatic  and  heroic  chapter  in  the  whole 
story  of  the  progress  of  the  Scandinavians  in  America  is 
that  dealing  with  their  part  in  that  great  struggle,  in  which 
many  hundreds  of  them  gave  their  strength  and  their  lives 
for  the  unity  and  safety  of  their  adopted  country  no  less 
bravely  and  no  less  cheerfully  than  did  the  native-born 
American.  The  men  from  Thelemark  and  Smaaland  and  the 
sons  of  Massachusetts  and  Michigan  were  inspired  by  the 
same  fine  and  pure  motives;  they  hated  slavery  and  loved 

20These  are  of  course  enumerated  as  Danes.  Pembina  County,  in  the 
extreme  northeast  corner  of  North  Dakota  had  in  1900  1588  Danes  (Ice- 
landers). The  movement  from  Iceland  began  about  1870.  See  R.  B. 
Anderson  in  Chicago  Record  Herald,  Aug.  21,  1901. 

21G.  T.  Flom,  "The  Scandinavian  Factor  in  the  American  Population", 
Iowa  Journal  of  History  and  Politics,  III,  88. 

^Statistical  Atlas  of  the  Twelfth  Census,  Plates  69,  71,  73,  76;  Iowa 
Journal  of  History  and  Politics,  III,  76. 


76  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [306 

the  flag  under  whose  folds  they  realized  their  hopes  and 
dreams.23  By  temperament,  by  religion,  by  education,  by 
tradition,  men  of  Norse  parentage  were  fitted  to  participate 
in  upholding  a  cause  so  essentially  right  and  high. 

In  the  short  space  of  this  volume,  details  of  the  loyal 
services  of  companies  made  up  wholly  or  in  large  part  of 
Swedes  and  Norwegians  must  be  omitted,  and  the  laurels 
won  by  such  men  as  General  Stohlbrand,  who  was  made 
a  brigadier  by  President  Lincoln  himself,24  Colonel  H.  C. 
Heg,25  Colonel  Mattson,26  and  Lieutenant  Colonel  Porter 
C.  Olson,27  must  be  passed  by  with  mere  allusions. 

The  Fifteenth  Wisconsin  Regiment  of  Volunteers,  con- 
sisting of  about  900  men,  whose  organization  was  decided 
upon  at  a  mass  meeting  held  in  the  Capitol  at  Madison,  in 
September,  1861,  was  made  up  almost  entirely  of  Nor- 
wegians and  Swedes,  some  of  whom  had  been  in  the  United 
States  less  than  a  year.  Hans  C.  Heg,  one  of  the  early 
leaders  of  the  Norwegian  immigration  into  Wisconsin,  was 
appointed  colonel  of  the  regiment  and  began  organization 
at  Camp  Kandall,  near  Madison,  in  the  following  Decem- 
ber.28 The  roster  of  officers  indicates  plainly  their  origin, 
including  such  names  as  Rev.  C.  L.  Clausen,  Thorkildson, 
Hansen,  Grinager,  Skofstad,  Ingmundson,  Tjentland,  and 
Solberg.29  The  regiment  left  for  the  front  in  March,  1862, 
and  participated  in  the  operations  of  the  next  three  years 
in  Kentucky,  Tennessee  and  northern  Georgia.  It  was 
mustered  out  at  Chattanooga  in  February,  1865,  having 
lost  about  300,  quite  one-third  of  its  total  enlistment,  from 

23Mattson,  Story  of  an  Emigrant,  60,  94.  Here  is  printed,  in  transla- 
tion from  Hemlandet,  a  stirring  appeal  "To  the  Scandinavians  of  Minne- 
sota ! ;"  Fadrelandet  og  Emigranten,  September  29,  1870. 

24Osborn,  "Personal  Memories  of  Brig.  Gen.  C  J.  Stolbrand",  year- 
Book  of  the  Swedish  Historical  Society  of  America,  1909-10,  5-16. 

25Dietrichson,  Det  Femtende   Wisconsin  Regiments  Historic,  26. 

28Mattson,  Story  of  an  Emigrant,  59-93. 

27 Anderson,  Norwegian  Immigration,  112-127. 

28Enander,  Borgerkrigen  i  de  Forenede  Stater,  106;  Dietrichson,  Det 
Femtende  Wisconsin  Regiments  Historic,  ch.  i. 

29Dietrichson,  "The  Fifteenth  Wisconsin,  or  Scandinavian,  Regi- 
ment," Scandinavia,  I,  297  ff. 


307]  EXPANSION  AND  DISTRIBUTION,  1850-1900  77 

deaths  in  battle  or  in  the  hospitals,  including  Colonel 
Heg,  who  was  killed  at  Chickamauga.30  Its  record  is 
summed  up  by  the  military  historian  of  Wisconsin  who 
states  that  it  was  "one  of  the  bravest  and  most  efficient 
regiments  that  Wisconsin  sent  to  the  field."31 

Besides  this  Scandinavian  regiment,  there  were  sev- 
eral others  in  which  the  Norse  element  was  large.  Com- 
pany C  of  the  43d  Illinois  Regiment  was  made  up  of 
Swedes,  serving  under  Captain  Arosenius.  It  was  organ- 
ized in  the  spring  of  1862  and  mustered  out  in  the  fall  of 
1865,  with  an  honorable  record  of  services  faithfully  and 
uncomplainingly  performed.32  Company  D  of  the  57th 
Illinois  Regiment,  which  served  from  the  autumn  of  1861 
to  July,  1864,33  and  Company  D  of  the  3d  Minnesota  Regi- 
ment, which  was  mustered  in  at  about  the  same  time,34 
were  composed  of  Scandinavians.  A  sprinkling  of  Swedes, 
Norwegians,  and  Danes  appears  in  the  lists  of  many  of  the 
regiments  of  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  and  Minnesota,  and  many 
of  these  men  rose  to  the  ranks  of  commissioned  officers.35 
The  Adjutant  General  of  Minnesota  in  1866  estimated  that 
of  the  enlistments  from  that  State,  at  least  800  were  Nor- 
wegians, 675  Swedes,  and  25  Danes.  "In  numerous  in- 
stances the  nativity  of  the  soldiers  is  omitted;  and  it  is 
not  easy  to  count  correctly  all  the  names  in  such  publi- 
cations; hence  it  is  fair  to  estimate  that  2,000  Scandi- 
navians from  Minnesota  enlisted  under  the  Stars  and 
Stripes.  .  .  .  One-eighth  of  the  total  population  of  the 
State  enlisted  under  the  Union  flag;  while  at  the  same 
time  one  out  of  every  six  Scandinavians  in  Minnesota,  as 
well  as  in  Wisconsin,  fought  for  his  adopted  country."36 

30Xelson,  History  of  Scandinavians,  I,  166. 

31Quiner,  The  Military  History  of  Wisconsin  (ch.  xxiii,  "Regi- 
mental Histories — I5th  Infantry"),  631. 

32Johnson  and  Peterson,  Svenskarne  i  Illinois,  143-149. 

33Ibid.,  155-161. 

34Mattson,  The  Story  of  an  Emigrant,  59-93. 

S5/W<f.,  62. 

38 Annual  Report  of  the  Adjutant  General  of  Minnesota,  1866,  it; 
Nelson,  History  of  the  Scandinavians,  I,  303-304.  Similar  figures  for 
Iowa  are  in  Nelson,  II,  67. 


78  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [308 

Everywhere  the  story  of  their  services  in  the  army  is 
creditable,  and  it  is  not  strange  that  the  survivors  are 
proud  of  their  war  records  as  the  badge  of  loyal  Ameri- 
canism. They  did  not  go  into  the  war  for  mere  love  of 
adventure,  nor  for  love  of  fighting,  for  men  in  large  num- 
bers do  not  leave  their  families  and  their  half-developed 
farms  for  flimsy  and  temporary  reasons.  They  loved  the 
new  country  they  had  made  their  own,  with  a  love  that  was 
measurable  in  the  high  terms  of  sacrifice,  even  to  the  shed- 
ding of  blood  and  to  death.  The  stock  out  of  which  Gus- 
tavus  Adolphus  made  brave  and  effective  soldiers  had  not 
degenerated  through  lapse  of  time  nor  through  trans- 
planting. 

Though  John  Ericsson  was  in  no  wise  connected  with 
the  regular  Swedish  immigration  movement,  nor  with 
Swedish  settlement  in  the  Northwest,  the  United  States 
owes  him  too  large  a  debt  for  what  has  sometimes  been 
called  the  salvation  of  the  Union  through  the  agency  of 
his  "Monitor",  to  warrant  the  omission  of  his  name  from 
among  those  Swedes  who  served  American  freedom  during 
the  Civil  War.37 

37Church,  Life  of  John  Ericsson. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

ECONOMIC  FORCES  AT  WORK. 

In  the  many  monographs  and  more  pretentious  works 
dealing  with  various  phases  of  the  economic  history  of  the 
United  States,  much  attention  has  been  given  to  the  tariff, 
manufacturing,  banking,  currency,  transportation,  and 
public  lands.  Only  recently  have  the  economic  results  of 
immigration  begun  to  receive  the  attention  which  their 
importance  deserves.  For  a  long  time  the  excellent  work 
of  Professor  Richmond  Mayo-Smith,  Emigration  and  Immi- 
gration (1890),  notable  for  the  strength  and  breadth  of  its 
general  treatment,  was  quite  alone  in  its  field.  Mere  sta- 
tistical studies  no  longer  suffice,  and  just  as  the  census- 
taking  of  the  Federal  Government  has  changed  from  the 
simple,  old-fashioned  inventory  of  numbers — so  many 
heads,  black  and  white,  native-born  and  foreign-born — to 
an  elaborate  investigation  of  the  life  problem  of  the  popu- 
lation, so  the  meaning  of  immigration  as  a  whole,  and  of 
Scandinavian  immigration  in  particular,  requires  a  dis- 
cussion extending  beyond  annual  and  decennial  statistics 
and  maps  of  the  density  of  settlement. 

In  the  economic  development  of  the  Northwest,  as  com- 
pared with  the  history  of  the  Eastern,  Middle,  or  Southern 
States  during  the  nineteenth  century,  the  three  principal 
topics  are  immigration,  the  Federal  land  policy,  and  im- 
provements in  transportation.  In  a  peculiar  manner  the 
last  two  subjects  are  interwoven  with  the  story  of  the  Nor- 
wegians, Swedes,  and  Danes  in  America.  When  people  by 
the  hundreds  of  thousands  were  settled  in  the  West,  when 
commerce  and  manufacturing  arose  upon  the  sound  basis 
of  a  prospering  agriculture,  then  and  not  till  then,  protec- 
tion, currency,  and  bimetallism  might  be  accepted  as  real 
and  immediate  issues. 

The  Scandinavian  immigrants  along  the  frontiers,  like 
the  other  pioneers  all  through  the  prairie  west,  were  from 

79 


80  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [310 

the  first  vitally  interested  in  securing  some  form  of  cheap 
transportation  of  the  produce  of  the  farms  to  a  good  mar- 
ket ;  railroads  were  indispensable  to  the  development  of  the 
agricultural  areas  of  the  Great  West.  Western  Pennsyl- 
vania might  find  profit  in  1794  in  shipping  the  quintessence 
of  its  agriculture  across  the  mountains  in  demijohns;  the 
cattlemen  of  the  South  and  Southwest  might  drive  their 
products  to  market  on  the  hoof;  but  at  the  very  best  these 
were  exceptional,  inelastic,  and  primitive  methods.  Many 
pioneer  Norwegians  and  Swedes  in  Minnesota  and  Iowa 
were  obliged  to  carry  their  wheat  and  corn  forty  and  fifty 
miles  to  have  it  ground  for  their  families,  but  they  could 
not  hope  to  haul  any  great  amount  of  ordinary  farm  pro- 
duce over  the  abominable  roads  of  the  West  for  a  distance 
greater  than  forty  miles  and  make  a  profit.1  Without  the 
hope  of  railroads,  the  vast  stretches  of  cereal-producing 
land  in  the  trans-Mississippi  would  long  have  remained 
virgin  soil.  Yet  without  assurance  that  population  would 
rapidly  increase  in  numbers  and  in  complexity  of  life,  thus 
giving  a  large  traffic  in  both  directions,  no  railroad  com- 
pany would  build  out  into  the  thinly  settled  area.2 

Broadly  speaking,  then,  the  real  problem  of  the  North- 
western frontier  after  1850  was :  how  to  put  more  and  ever 
more  men  of  capacity,  endurance,  strength,  and  adapta- 
bility into  the  upper  Mississippi  and  Red  River  valleys, 
men  who  first  break  up  the  prairie  sod,  clear  the  brush  off 
the  slopes,  drain  the  marshes,  build  the  railroads,  and  do 

1Fcedrelandet  og  Etnigranten,  July  21,  1870;  interview  in  1890  with  the 
Rev.  U.  V.  Koren,  the  first  Norwegian  Lutheran  minister  permanently 
located  west  of  the  Mississippi.  Miss  Bremer  in  October,  1850,  described 
the  road  over  which  the  early  settlers  in  Wisconsin  went  30  and  40  miles 
to  market :  "the  newborn  roads  of  Wisconsin,  which  are  no  roads  at  all, 
but  a  succession  of  hills  and  holes  and  water  pools  in  which  first  one 
wheel  sank  and  then  the  other,  while  the  opposite  one  stood  high  up  in 
the  air.  ...  To  me,  that  mode  of  travelling  seemed  really  incredible.  .  .  . 
They  comforted  me  by  telling  me  that  the  diligence  was  not  in  the  habit 
of  being  upset  very  often !"  Homes  of  the  New  World,  II.  235-236. 

2It  was  on  faith  in  the  future  of  the  northern  zone  of  the  Northwest, 
based  upon  observation,  that  the  Great  Northern  Railroad  was  built 
without  any  land-grant  or  subsidy  such  as  the  Northern  Pacific  and  other 
roads  demanded  and  got. 


311]  ECONOMIC   FORCES  AT  WORK  81 

the  thousands  and  one  hard  jobs  incident  to  pioneer  life, 
and  then  turn  to  the  building  of  factories  and  towns  and 
cities.  Not  every  sort  of  man  who  could  hold  a  plow  or 
wield  a  hoe  would  do :  Chinese  coolies,  for  example,  would 
hardly  be  considered  desirable,  even  with  all  their  capacity 
for  hard  work,  persistence,  and  patience.  Furthermore,  it 
is  plain  now,  that  the  West  could  not  have  looked  to  the 
Eastern  States  alone  to  send  out  an  industrial  army  suf- 
ficient in  numbers  and  spirit  for  the  conquest  of  the  new 
empire  and  the  extraction  of  its  varied  resources  at  the 
desired  speed.  The  demands  were  too  severe,  the  rewards 
too  remote  and  uncertain  for  the  average  prosperous 
native-born  citizen.  The  aliens  from  the  western  side  of 
the  Atlantic,  as  it  were  by  regiments  and  battalions,  must 
re-enforce  the  companies  westward-bound  from  the  older 
States;  in  such  a  situation  the  Scandinavians  were  all  but 
indispensable  to  rapid  material  progress  in  the  Northwest 
after  the  middle  of  the  last  century. 

It  is  not  easy  to  realize  how  attractive  to  the  North- 
land immigrants  were  the  broad,  level  lands  of  the  West, 
to  be  had  from  the  United  States  Government  on  the  easiest 
of  terms,  both  before  and  after  the  passage  of  the  Home- 
stead Act  of  1862.  Scarcely  in  their  dreams  had  they  con- 
ceived of  soil  so  fertile,  so  readily  tilled,  and  so  cheaply 
acquired.  To  speak  to  a  Norwegian  from  Thelemarken,  to 
a  Swede  from  Smaaland,  or  to  a  Dane  from  the  misty, 
sandy  coast  of  Jutland,  about  rich,  rolling  prairies  stretch- 
ing away  miles  upon  miles,  about  land  which  was  neither 
rocky,  nor  swampy,  nor  pure  sand,  nor  set  up  at  an  angle 
of  forty-five  degrees,  about  land  which  could  be  had  almost 
for  the  asking  in  fee  simple  and  not  by  some  semi-manorial 
title — this  was  to  speak  to  his  imagination  rather  than  to 
his  understanding.  The  letters  from  immigrants  to  their  old 
friends  in  Europe  continually  dilated  on  these  advantages, 
sometime  with  a  curious  mingling  of  humor  and  pathos. 
One  of  these  communications,  which  was  printed  as  a  small 
pamphlet  in  1850,  sets  forth  in  large  letters,  that  the  land 
was  so  plentiful  that  the  pigs  and  cattle  were  allowed  to 


82  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [312 

run  at  will.3  What  more  could  be  asked  of  Providence  by 
a  poor  peasant  or  "husmand,"  owing  to  his  landlord,  for 
the  little  strip  of  land  on  which  he  lived,  the  labor  of  two  or 
three  days  each  week?4 

These  strictly  economic  advantages  of  soil  and  price 
were  not  the  only  attractions  for  the  sons  of  the  Northlands. 
Both  the  traveller  and  the  prospector  for  a  site  for  a  settle- 
ment were  deeply  impressed  by  the  general  appearance  of 
the  rolling  country  of  the  Northwest  with  its  abundance  of 
streams  and  lakes.  During  her  visit  to  Wisconsin  and 
Minnesota  in  the  fall  of  1850,  Frederika  Bremer  saw  with 
quite  prophetic  vision,  the  possibilities  of  the  region : 

"What  a  glorious  new  Scandinavia  might  not  Minne- 
sota become!  Here  would  the  Swede  find  again  his  clear, 
romantic  lakes,  the  plains  of  Scania  rich  in  corn,  and  the 
valleys  of  Norrland;  here  would  the  Norwegian  find  his 
rapid  rivers,  his  lofty  mountains,  for  I  include  the  Rocky 
Mountains  and  Oregon,  in  the  new  kingdom;  and  both  na- 
tions their  hunting  fields  and  their  fisheries.  The  Danes 
might  here  pasture  their  flocks  and  herds,  and  lay  out  their 
farms  on  richer  and  less  misty  coasts  than  those  of  Den- 
mark   Scandinavians  who  are  well  off  in  the  old 

country  ought  not  to  leave  it.  But  such  as  are  too  much 
contracted  at  home,  and  who  desire  to  emigrate,  should 
come  to  Minnesota.  The  climate,  the  situation,  the  char- 
acter of  the  scenery,  agrees  with  our  people  better  than 
that  of  any  other  of  the  American  States,  and  none  of  them 
appear  to  me  to  have  a  greater  or  a  more  beautiful  future 
before  them  than  Minnesota.  Add  to  this  that  the  rich  soil 
of  Minnesota  is  not  yet  bought  up  by  speculators,  but  may 
everywhere  be  purchased  at  government  prices There 

3A  copy  of  this  interesting  little  pamphlet,  without  signature,  was 
found  in  the  National  Library  in  Stockholm. 

4Young,  Labor  in  Europe  and  America,  696.  Laing,  Journal  of  a 
Residence  in  Norway  (1834),  151,  describes  the  conditions  in  a  parish, 
Levanger,  near  Throndhjem.  There  fifty  estates  were  entered  to  pay  land 
tax.  Out  of  a  population  of  2465,  124  were  proprietors  cultivating  their 
own  land ;  47  were  tenants  leasing  lands,  and  144  were  "housemen"  or 
tenants  owing  labor  for  their  land. 


313]  ECONOMIC   FORCES   AT   WORK  83 

are  here  already  a  considerable  number  of  Norwegians  and 
Danes."5  The  Swedish  air-castle  took  material  shape 
rapidly;  during  forty  years  the  name  Minnesota,  even 
more  than  Iowa,  or  Wisconsin,  was  a  name  to  conjure 
with  among  the  laborers  and  would-be  farmers  of  the  old 
kingdoms.6 

Of  the  peculiar  fitness  of  the  Swedes,  Norwegians,  and 
Danes  for  this  promotion  of  economic  progress  in  a  great 
section  of  the  country,  there  is  practically  a  unanimous 
opinion.  A  dispassionate,  mature  estimate  is  expressed 
officially  by  an  agent  of  the  British  Government  sent  out 
to  study  the  question  of  immigration  in  the  United  States. 
"It  is  generally  admitted,"  he  states,  "that  physically, 
morally,  and  socially,  no  better  class  of  immigrants  enter 
the  United  States.  In  some  respects  they  are  the  most 
desirable  of  all."7  A  first-hand  observer  of  their  work  as 
western  farmers  wrote  in  1868  concerning  the  settlers  in 
a  Norwegian  township  in  Minnesota,  "They  ppen  their 
farms  quicker,  raise  better  stock  than  most  any  other  class, 
and  quickly  become  wealthy."8  In  a  hearing  before  the 
Industrial  Commission  in  1899,  Hermann  Stump,  a  promi- 
nent German,  testified  that  the  Scandinavians  "are  really 
the  best  immigrants  who  come  to  the  United  States."9 

While  the  Scandinavians  were  admirably  fitted  to 
become  substantial  citizens  and  to  develop  their  own 

5Bremer,  Homes  of  the  New  World,  II,  314-315. 

'The  charm  of  this  name  was  illustrated  in  a  curious  way  during  the 
journey  of  the  writer  and  another  American  through  the  mountains  of 
central  Norway  in  the  summer  of  1890.  One  early  evening  they  came  to 
the  cabin  of  a  sater,  or  summer  pasture,  high  up  on  the  side  of  Gaus- 
tafjeld,  and  asked  to  be  lodged  for  the  night.  It  appeared  that  the  only 
room  available  for  strangers  was  already  occupied  by  two  young  men 
from  Christiania ;  but  when  the  conversation  developed  the  fact  that  both 
the  late-comers  were  from  America,  and  one  from  Minnesota,  the  woman 
of  the  house  hastened  off  into  the  next  room,  ordered  out  the  two  Nor- 
wegians, and  announced  on  returning  that  the  room  was  at  the  service 
of  the  foreigners ! 

''Report  of  the  Board  of  Trade  of  Great  Britain  on  Alien  Immigration 
to  the  United  States,  211,  212. 

8Goddard,  Where  to  Emigrate  and  Why,  247. 

9Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  XV,  22. 


84  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [314 

properties,  and  while  the  prospect  of  possessing  a  farm 
was  the  most  potent  and  pervading  influence  affecting  their 
movements  after  about  1850,  the  very  high  rate  of  wages 
paid  in  the  United  States,  as  compared  with  the  wages  in 
Europe,  was  everywhere  an  important  factor  among  the 
immediate  attractions.  All  of  the  western  States,  in  the 
first  decade  of  their  growth,  were  exceedingly  anxious  to 
secure  settlers  who  should  take  up  and  improve  the  vacant 
square  miles,  thus  adding  to  the  population  and  to  the 
taxable  values  of  the  commonwealth.  At  the  same  time 
there  was  a  large  and  steady  demand  for  wage-labor;  the 
farmers  needed  helpers;  the  construction  of  internal  im- 
provements, begun  and  projected,  like  the  rapidly  expand- 
ing railroad  systems,  could  be  carried  on  only  by  the  aid 
of  an  abundance  of  laborers.10 

These  needs  could  not  be  met  by  any  considerable 
migration  of  laborers  from  the  eastern  States,  for  there 
the  development  of  manufacturing  and  of  transportation 
by  land  and  by  sea  would  operate  to  keep  up  wages  and  so 
to  hold  the  laborers.  The  hard  labor  of  the  Far  West, 
therefore,  must  be  done,  if  done  at  all,  by  those  who  had  not 
already  found  places  for  themselves  in  the  industrial  system 
of  the  United  States,  and  for  such  services  a  good  rate  of 
wages  would  be  paid,  or  at  least  a  rate  sufficient  to  draw 
the  desired  labor.  In  1851  the  $15  per  month  received  by 
some  Swedes  working  as  farm  hands  near  Buffalo,  New 
York,  was  considered  "big  wages."11  At  the  same  time 
laborers  on  railroad  construction  in  the  West  were  receiv- 
ing $.75  and  $1  per  day.  Whether  measured  as  real  or  nom- 
inal wages,  these  rates  were  certainly  higher  than  even  the 
average  skilled  laborer  could  earn  in  Norway  or  Sweden.12 

10Mattson,  The  Story  of  an  Emigrant,  29  ff. 

11Mattson,  The  Story  of  an  Emigrant,  17. 

*-Ibid.,  29.  For  work  on  the  Chicago  &  Rock  Island  Railroad,  Matt- 
son  received  $.75  per  day,  and  paid  for  board  $1.50  a  week,  but  the 
determination  of  the  real  wages,  per  month,  requires  a  liberal  deduction 
from  these  day-wages,  for  the  process  of  acclimatization  was  severe  in 
such  malarial  districts  as  that  in  which  Mattson  worked,  and  few  men 
at  first  worked  more  than  fifteen  or  twenty  days  in  the  month. 


315] 


ECONOMIC  FORCES  AT  WORK 


85 


Tho  the  wages  in  the  peninsular  kingdoms  rose  consider- 
ably from  1850  to  1875,  there  was  still  at  the  later  date 
and  afterwards  a  large  differential  in  favor  of  the  American 
scale,  whether  for  skilled  or  unskilled  laborers.  The 
experienced  agricultural  laborer  in  the  fields  of  Illinois, 
or  Wisconsin  received  two  or  three  times  as  much  as  the 
corresponding  worker  in  Norway  and  Sweden,  while  in 
new  States  like  Minnesota  the  multiple  was  even  greater.13 
Still  more  marked  were  the  differences  between  skilled 
laborers,  such  as  carpenters  and  smiths,  in  America  and 
Europe  even  after  the  panic  of  1873. 14 

13The  following  tabulation  is  drawn  from  the  statistics  of  Dr.  Young, 
Labor  in  Europe  and  America,  to  illustrate  the  differences  of  wages.  Per- 
sonal inquiries  among  men  from  all  parts  of  Northern  Europe  confirm 
in  a  general  way  these  figures  reported  from  Europe.  The  European 
rates  are  reduced  to  gold  values,  while  those  for  the  United  States  are  in 
paper  money  values,  and  should  be  discounted  10%  or  12%  to  put  them 
on  a  par  with  the  other  rates. 

Summer  Winter 

Experienced  agric.  With  Without  With  Without 

laborers,  per  day  Board  Board  Board  Board 

Sweden,  1873 $  .66  $  $  .46  $ 

Norway,  1873  28-43  -42-55  .2I-.3I  .55 

Denmark,  1872 54  .80  .40  .60 

U.  S.  (Western),  1870 1.34  1.84  -97  MO 

Minnesota,    1870 1.60  2.50  1.17  1.67 

U.  S.  (Western),  1874 1.15  1.58  .93  i-35 

Minnesota,    1874. i.oo  1.50  .75  1.25 

"Ibid. 
Mechanics  and  skilled 

laborers,  per  day  Blacksmiths  Carpenters 

Sweden,  1873  $  .80  $  .80 

Norway,   1873   9°  -85 

Denmark,  1873  85  .65-.8S 

U.  S.   (Western),  1870  &  1874. ~ 2.88  &  2.66  2.08  &  2.72 

Minnesota,  1870  &  1874 3-O3  &  3-OQ  2.92  &  2.50 

Domestic  servants,  female,  per  month 

Sweden,   1873  $2. 14—  8.00 

Norway,  1873  (cooks)  2.42 — 3.59 

U.  S.  (Western),  1870  &  1874. 9.43  &  9.28 

Minnesota,  1870  8.98 


86  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [316 

The  eloquence  of  these  figures,  and  of.  the  conditions 
behind  them,  was  not  left  to  do  its  work  by  chance  in  the 
private  letters  of  immigrants  or  in  the  occasional  pamphlet. 
States  and  counties,  as  well  as  railroad  corporations  dis- 
seminated very  widely  and  systematically  the  knowledge 
of  the  opportunities  open  to  the  laborer  in  the  great  West. 
If  he  were  a  man  who  would  progress  from  a  temporary 
tho  necessary  factor  in  construction  or  in  the  field,  to  a 
permanent  settler  taking,  up  vacant  land,  so  much  the 
better  for  the  State  and  the  corporation.  Fortunately  for 
those  great  railroads,  which  were  pushing  construction  and 
receiving  large  subsidies  in  public  lands,  they  found  just 
such  men  in  the  Swedes  and  Norwegians.  As  the  Rock 
Island  railroad  pushed  across  Illinois  and  Iowa,  as  the 
Northern  Pacific  built  out  through  Minnesota  and  Dakota, 
and  as  the  road  now  known  as  the  Great  Northern  carried 
its  lines  from  St.  Paul  into  the  Red  River  valley,  and  on 
across  North  Dakota,  the  Scandinavian  and  the  Irishman 
supplied  the  demand  for  labor  from  1850  to  1890,  in  pre- 
cisely the  same  way  as  the  Italian,  Pole,  Mexican,  and 
Greek  have  been  doing  in  later  years. 

When  construction  of  a  railroad  ended,  the  demand 
for  immigrants  merely  changed  its  form  and  became  cumu- 
lative. The  dividends  of  any  railroad  running  out  into  a 
new  country  depend  on  the  development  of  the  tributary 
territory,  and  this  is  especially  true  of  the  land-grant  roads 
which  owned  half  of  the  land  within  ten  miles  of  their 
tracks.  Thus  it  came  about  that  the  Scandinavians  were 
doubly  valuable,  first  as  laborers  for  wages,  and  second  as 
independent  farmers  in  the  townships  made  accessible  by 
the  new  lines.15  It  was,  indeed,  faith  in  human  nature,  and 
especially  Swedish  and  Norwegian  human  nature,  which 
led  to  the  construction  and  profitable  operation  of  hundreds 
of  miles  of  new  roads  in  Minnesota  and  Dakota  after  1880. 

"Personal  interviews  with  a  large  number  of  Swedes  and  Norwegians 
in  northwestern  Minnesota,  in  May.  1890,  brought  out  the  fact  that  many 
of  them  worked  in  the  construction  of  the  Northern  Pacific  and  Great 
Northern  railroads,  and  then  invested  their  savings  in  railroad  lands  in 
the  Red  River  valley,  where  they  were  prosperous  farmers. 


317]  ,  ECONOMIC   FORCES  AT  WORK  87 

One  prominent  railroad  man  estimated  that  each  settler 
(presumably  each  head  of  a  family)  meant  in  the  long  run 
from  |200  to  $300  a  year  for  the  railroad.16 

The  fulfilment  of  the  expectations  of  the  builders  of 
railroads  and  commonwealths  was  often  surprisingly 
prompt.  The  prophetic  insight  of  at  least  one  "captain  of 
industry,"  President  James  J.  Hill  of  the  Great  Northern 
Railway  Company  which  built  its  transcontinental  system 
without  land-grant,  was  as  sure  a  reliance  for  capital  as 
the  subsidy  of  the  Federal  Government.  Speaking  in  1902 
at  Crookston,  in  the  center  of  the  great  Scandinavian 
region  in  northwestern  Minnesota,  he  described  in  striking 
terms  the  growth  of  farm  values,  and  of  the  railroad  busi- 
ness in  some  of  the  towns  in  Minnesota  and  North  Dakota : 
"I  took  the  best  towns  [of  the  Red  River  valley]  outside 
Crookston  [for  comparison  with  towns  in  North  Da- 
kota]. ...  I  will  give  you  the  annual  business.  Warren's 
last  year's  railroad  business  with  our  company  was  $86,- 
000 :'  Hallock,  $94,000,— a  respectable  sum;  Stephen, 
$87,000;  Ada,  $81,000 Langdon  [in  North  Da- 
kota] ....  away  up  towards  the  boundary,  upon  Pembina 
Mountain,  $210,000;  Osnabrock,  I  hardly  know  where  it 
is  myself,  $101,000;  Park  River,  $170,000;  ....  Bottineau, 
away  at  the  west  end  of  the  Turtle  Mountains,  where  a  few 
years  ago  people  said  it  was  too  far  away;  could  not  live 
there  and  could  not  raise  anything  if  they  did  live  there, 

$258,000 Land  up  there  [around  Bottineau],  worth 

$3,  $5,  and  $8  an  acre,  and  a  few  pieces  $10  an  acre,  a  few 
years  ago,  is  worth  today  $25  and  $30  per  acre."17 

The  railroads  left  nothing  undone  to  stimulate  the 
economic  desire  of  the  Scandinavians  to  migrate  to  their 
particular  sections  of  land  and  to  the  adjoining  government 
sections.  Several  companies  maintained  for  years  regular 
immigration  or  land  agents,  besides  a  considerable  and 
variable  corps  of  sub-agents,  port  agents,  and  lecturers; 

18Mr.  Powell.  General  Immigration  Agent  of  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee 
&  St.  Paul  Railroad,  in  the  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Dec.  30,  1888,  p.  10. 
"Northwest  Magazine,  XX,  7,  n    (1902). 


88  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [318 

some  of  them  paid  the  expenses  of  men  representing  groups 
of  prospective  immigrants,  who  desired  to  visit  and  report 
upon  a  particular  locality.  The  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis  & 
Manitoba  Railroad  advertised  in  "Facts  about  Minnesota" 
(1881)  :  "The  settler — his  family,  household  goods,  live 
stock  and  agricultural  implements — will  be  carried  from 
St.  Paul  to  any  point  on  either  of  our  lines  at  one-half 
the  regular  price." 

Besides  these  efforts  and  inducements,  the  railroad 
companies  prepared  handbooks  in  different  languages,  dis- 
tributed them  widely  throughout  the  East  and  West,  and 
circulated  them  systematically  in  Norway,  Sweden  and 
Denmark.18  A  few  of  the  companies  even  sent  special 
representatives  to  Europe  to  work  directly  with  the  people 
of  those  countries.  The  Hon.  Hans  Mattson  left  the  office 
of  Secretary  of  State  in  Minnesota  in  1871  to  become  the 
liberally  paid  European  agent  for  the  Northern  Pacific 
Railroad  whose  resources  he  was  to  advertise  from  his 
headquarters  in  Sweden.19  He  was  not,  however,  to  organ- 
ize regular  parties  of  emigrants.  A  high  official  of  one  of 
the  northwestern  roads  summed  up  the  matter  by  saying, 
"There  is  as  much  competition  among  the  railroads  desir- 
ing to  attract  immigrants,  as  among  dry-goods  stores  in 
aiming  to  attract  customers." 

The  northwestern  State  governments  were  hardly  less 
interested  in  inducing  immigrants  to  help  fill  up  the  vacant 
square  miles  and  townships  than  were  the  railroads,  for 
developed  farms  meant  towns,  diversified  industry,  and 
greater  assessment  values,  which,  being  translated,  meant 
much-needed  public  buildings,  institutions,  and  improve- 
ments. The  competition  of  the  States,  for  immigrants  such 
as  the  Norwegians,- re-enforced  and  parallelled  that  of  the 
railroad  and  land  companies.  Wisconsin  appointed  a  Com- 
missioner of  Emigration  in  1852,  who  resided  in  New  York, 

18Such  pamphlets  were  issued  by  the  Wisconsin  Central,  the  Chicago 
&  Northwestern,  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul,  and  the  Northern 
Pacific  railroads.  Some  of  them  were  printed  in  Swedish,  Norwegian, 
German,  Dutch,  and  Polish. 

"Mattson,  The  Story  of  an  Emigrant,  118  ff. 


319]  ECONOMIC   FORCES   AT  WORK  89 

and  employed  a  Norwegian  and  a  German  assistant.20  The 
following  year  another  Act  created  a  Traveling  Emigrant 
Agent,  and  prescribed  that  he  should  "travel  constantly 
between  this  State  and  the  city  of  New  York,"  to  advertise 
"our  great  natural  resources,  advantages  and  privileges, 
and  brilliant  prospects  for  the  future."21  Pamphlets  by 
the  thousand  in  German,  Norwegian,  and  Dutch  were  sent 
out  in  America  and  Europe.  The  office  was  abolished  in 
1855,  but  in  1867  another  Act  created  an  unpaid  Board  of 
Immigration  and  appropriated  $2,000  for  printing  pamph- 
lets in  English,  Welsh,  German,  and  the  Scandinavian 
languages.22  The  State  even  went  so  far,  in  a  later  Act, 
as  to  authorize  the  Board,  in  its  discretion,  to  help  with 
money,  "such  immigrants  as  are  determined  to  make  Wis- 
consin their  future  home."23 

The  Board  was  succeeded  by  a  Commissioner  (Ole  C. 
Johnson)  in  1871,  whose  office  was  in  turn  abolished  in 
1874.  The  story  of  Wisconsin's  later  organizations  for 
promoting  immigration  ought  almost  to  go  into  the  chapter 
on  politics — a  new  Board  in  1879,  abolished  in  1887,  re- 
newed for  two  years  in  1895,  and  revived  for  another  two 
years  in  1899.24  In  1880,  at  the  request  of  the  president  of 
the  Wisconsin  Central  Kailway  Company,  K.  K.  Kennan, 
agent  of  the  land  department  of  that  company,  was  also 
appointed  agent  for  the  State  in  Europe,  without  expense 
to  the  State.25 

For  the  same  purposes,  and  with  the  same  methods, 
Iowa  had  a  Commissioner,  1860-1862,  and  a  Board  (of 

20Laws  of  Wisconsin,  1852,  ch.  432;  Ibid.,  1853,  ch.  53;  Wisconsin 
Documents,  1853,  1854,  Reports  of  Commissioner  of  Emigration. 

^General  Acts  of  Wisconsin,  1853,  ch.  56. 

22Ibid.,  1855,  ch.  3;  1867,  ch.  126;  1868,  ch.  120;  Governor's  Messages 
and  Documents,  1870,  n. 

23General  Acts  of  Wisconsin,  1869,  ch.  118. 

24Ibid.,  1871,  ch.  155;  1874,  ch.  238;  1879,  ch.  176;  1887,  ch.  21;  1895, 
ch.  235;  1899,  ch.  279.  The  abolished  Commissioner  of  1874  declared  the 
repeal  was  "conceived  in  vindictiveness  and  brought  about  by  third-rate 
politicians,  and  followed  my  refusal  to  appoint  to  place  in  my  office" 
certain  incompetents.  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Immigration,  1874,  2. 

25Annual  Report  of  Board  of  Immigration,  1880,  6. 


90  THE  SCANDINAVIAN   ELEMENT  [320 

which  the  Rev.  C.  L.  Clausen  was  a  member),  1870-1874, 
which  sent  agents  to  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark,  where 
they  published  articles  in  the  newspapers  and  stirred  up 
emigration  sentiment.26 

Minnesota,  likewise,  in  1867  created  a  Board  of  Emi- 
gration, and  Hans  Mattson  was  appointed  secretary.  He 
proved  a  very  efficient  officer,  and  not  the  less  so  because 
at  the  same  time,  as  he  admits,  he  acted  as  land  agent  for 
one  of  the  great  railroad  companies,  whose  line  went 
through  Wright,  Meeker,  Kandiyohi,  Swift  and  Stevens 
counties.27  Of  the  work  of  the  Board,  Mattson  gives  a 
convincing  summary :  "In  the  above-named  localities  there 
were  only  a  few  widely  scattered  families  when  I  went 
there  in  1867,  while  it  is  now  (1891)  one  continuous  Scan- 
dinavian settlement,  extending  over  a  territory  more  than 
a  hundred  miles  long  and  dotted  over  with  cities  and  towns, 
largely  the  result  of  the  work  of  the  board  of  emigration 

during  the  years  1867,  1868,  and  1869 Our  efforts, 

however,  in  behalf  of  Minnesota  brought  on  a  great  deal 
of  envy  and  ill-will  from  people  in  other  States  who  were 
interested  in  seeing  the  Scandinavian  emigration  turned 
towards  Kansas  and  other  States,  and  this  feeling  went  so 
far  that  a  prominent  newspaper  writer  in  Kansas  accused 
me  of  selling  my  countrymen  to  a  life  not  much  better  than 
slavery  in  a  land  of  ice,  snow,  and  perpetual  winter,  where, 
if  the  poor  emigrant  did  not  starve  to  death,  he  would 
surely  perish  with  cold.  Such  at  that  time  was  the  opinion 
of  many  concerning  Minnesota."28 

The  secretaries  or  commissioners  of  immigration  were 
usually  men  of  alien  birth  or  extraction,  and  therefore 
intelligent  and  sympathetic  in  their  labors  for  succeeding 
immigrants.29  Probably  no  State  gave  better  care,  guid- 
ance, and  protection  to  foreigners  coming  as  settlers  than 
did  Minnesota,  and  naturally,  with  a  Swede  as  commis- 
sioner, the  Scandinavians  were  "preferred  stock.''  The 

-*Laws  of  Iowa,  1860,  ch.  81 ;  1862,  ch.   n;  1870,  ch.  34. 
27Mattson,   The  Story  of  an  Emigrant,  97,  99,  101. 
28Mattson,  The  Story  of  an  Emigrant,  100-101. 
29Ibid.,  99,  102;  Wisconsin  Legislative  Manual,  1895,  133. 


321]  ECONOMIC   FORCES  AT  WORK  91 

work  of  the  Minnesota  commission  included  the  appoint- 
ment of  interpreters  to  meet  immigrants  at  New  York, 
Montreal,  and  Quebec  and  accompany  them  to  Minnesota ; 
provision  for  temporary  homes  for  the  new-comers  until 
they  went  to  their  chosen  locality ;  and  wide  publication  of 
newspaper  articles  in  different  languages.  Pamphlets  con- 
taining maps  and  detailed  descriptions  of  States  and 
counties  were  distributed  at  railroad  stations  and  on 
steamers,  in  America  and  in  foreign  countries.30  It  would 
be  stretching  the  truth  a  little  to  say  that  these  circulars 
sent  out  by  States,  counties,  and  railroad  companies  were 
always  strictly  accurate  and  ingenuous,  but  they  brought 
the  desired  results,  not  in  one  campaign  alone,  but  year 
after  year.  Taken  as  a  whole  the  energies  of  the  State  and 
railroad  agents,  were  honorable,  well-managed,  and  highly 
beneficial  to  both  the  States  and  the  immigrants.  The  best 
evidence  for  this  statement  lies  in  the  figures  of  the  censuses 
of  1880,  1890,  and  1900  for  the  population  of  Wisconsin, 
Iowa,  Minnesota,  and  the  Dakotas.31 

The  value  of  so  many  tens  of  thousands  of  immigrants 
added  to  the  assets  of  western  commonwealths, — so  many 
scores  of  thousands  of  "hands,"  to  make  use  of  the  collo- 
quial term  for  labor  units, — is  at  once  great  and  difficult 
to  measure  or  estimate.  In  economic  terms,  how  much 
is  a  full-grown,  healthy,  intelligent,  literate  young  man 
worth  to  a  community  into  which  he  drops  himself,  for  is 
he  not  as  much  a  finished  labor-performing  machine  as  a 
new  traction  engine  or  a  span  of  mules,  either  of  which  the 
assessor  would  set  down  in  his  books?  The  risks  and  pains 
and  costs  of  up-bringing  through  unproductive  years,  of 
educating,  of  training  for  occupation,  have  all  been  borne 
by  another  community;  the  increment  of  wealth  arising 
from  his  labor,  providence,  and  skill  will  enrich  the  United 
States. 

80See  Bibliographical  Chapter,  under  the  names,  Hewitt,  Listoe,  and 
Mattson,  for  Minnesota. 

31  See  Statistical  chapter,  tables  5,  6,  7. 


92  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [322 

Yet  it  is  not  a  fair  test  of  the  value  of  an  immigrant 
to  this  country  to  measure  it  by  the  cost  of  his  bringing  up 
and  education,  either  by  the  standards  of  his  old  home 
or  by  the  American  standards.  Professor  Mayo-Smith 
pointed  out  the  fallacy  in  the  oft-quoted  estimate  of  Kapp, 
made  up  on  this  basis,  that  "the  capital  value  of  each  male 
and  female  immigrant  was  about  $1,500  and  $750 
respectively,  making  an  average  of  f  1125.32  Dr.  Young, 
formerly  Chief  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Statistics, 
chooses  as  a  basis  the  "market  value"  rather  than  the  "cost 
of  production,"  and  estimates  the  approximate  yearly  addi- 
tion made  by  each  immigrant  to  the  realized  wealth  of  the 
country  in  the  form  of  farms,  buildings,  stock,  tools,  and 
savings,  to  be  amout  $40,  which,  capitalized  at  5%,  gives 
$800  as  the  value  of  each  immigrant.33  An  interesting 
German  calculation  in  1881,  made  in  much  the  same  way  as 
Dr.  Young's,  put  the  capital  value  of  each  immigrant  at 
$1,200.34  Another  method  of  gauging  the  amount  con- 
tributed to  the  earnings  of  the  country  by  each  immigrant, 
is  to  multiply  the  average  daily  wage  of  $1  by  one-fifth  the 
total  number  of  immigrants,  and  that  by  300,  the  number 


32Kapp,  Immigration  and  the  New  York  Commissioners  of  Emigra- 
tion, 146;  Mayo-Smith,  Emigration  and  Immigration,  ch.  vi. 

33Young,  Special  Report  on  Immigration  (1871),  vii-ix. 

""According  to  other  statistics,  the  average  annual  earnings  of  a 
workman  amount  to  $625,  and  one  may  safely  presume  that  every  able- 
bodied  workman  contributes  every  year  */i  of  his  earnings  to  the  increase 
of  national  wealth.  Taking  into  consideration  the  period  of  time  of  a 
full  working  capacity  of  emigrants  according  to  their  age,  and  considering 
the  much  less  working  capacity  of  females,  and  the  cost  of  raising  the 
children  which  they  bring  with  them,  one  may  fairly  presume  that,  during 
the  last  few  years,  not  only  considerable  cash  capital  has  been  taken  to 
the  United  States  by  emigrants,  but  that  every  one  of  them  carries  to 
that  country,  in  his  labor,  a  capital  which  may  be  estimated  at  $1200.  The 
total  value  of  the  labor  thus  conveyed  to  the  United  States  during  the  last 
five  years,  may  therefore  be  estimated  at  about  $700,000,000.  No  wonder 
that  the  United  States  of  America  prosper."  Hamburger  Handelsblatt, 
March  18,  1881,  quoted  in  translation  from  this  "leading  trade  journal  of 
Germany",  in  Annual  Report  of  the  Wisconsin  Board  of  Immigration, 
14. 


323]  ECONOMIC  FORCES  AT  WORK  93 

of  working  days  in  the  year.33  Taking  the  values  of  the 
immigrant  over  fourteen  years  of  age  and  under  forty-five, 
as  $1000,  and  estimating  conservatively  that  80  per-cent  of 
the  foreign-born  enumerated  in  the  census  of  1900  reached 
the  United  States  between  those  ages,  the  Scandinavians  so 
enumerated  represented  a  capital  value  of  about  $850,000,- 
000,  to  which  the  immigration  from  the  North  countries 
in  the  next  five  years  added  not  less  than  $230,000,000. 
Viewed  from  one  point,  this  capital  was  just  so  much  given 
by  the  gods  of  plenty  to  accelerate  the  development  of 
the  West. 

Another  phase  of  the  economic  advantages  of  Scandi- 
navian immigration  has  to  do  with  the  cash  capital  brought 
by  the  incoming  thousands.  While  the  first  Norwegians 
were  of  the  poorest  class  of  the  community,  who  escaped 
from  unfavorable  conditions  almost  empty-handed, 
squeezed  out  from  the  bottom  of  society,  as  it  were  througli 
cracks  and  crevices,  and  while  many  of  the  later  arrivals 
have  had  no  other  capital  than  strong  hands  and  equally 
strong  determination,  the  great  proportion  of  adults  have 
brought  with  them  average  sums  variously  estimated  from 
$22  to  $70  each.  G.  H.  Schwab  of  New  York,  whose  firm 
was  general  American  agent  for  the  North  German  Lloyd 
Steamship  Company,  estimated  the  average  money  or 
money  equivalent  brought  by  the  Scandinavians,  at  $22 
per  head,  probably  including  children  in  the  calculation.36 
W.  W.  Thomas,  Jr.,  Commissioner  of  Immigration  for 
Maine,  and  later  minister  to  Sweden,  states  that  900  Swedes 
who  came  to  Maine  in  one  year,  besides  clothing,  tools,  and 
household  goods,  had  $40,000  in  cash;  and  elsewhere  he 
puts  the  average  at  $50  per  head.37  The  figures  from  Wis- 
consin, which  received  better  material  than  the  average, 
would  naturally  run  higher;  in  1880  the  official  estimate 

35 J.  B.  Webber,  in  North  American  Review,  CLIV,  435  (1892). 

™Forum,  XIV,  810. 

^Report  of  the  Board  and  Commissioner  of  Immigration  of  Maine, 
1872,  6;  F.  L.  Dingley,  "European  Emigration,"  Special  Consular  Re- 
ports, II,  No.  2,  1890,  260. 


94  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [324 

of  cash  brought  by  each  immigrant  was  "from  $60  to  $70."38 
Assuming  an  average  of  50,000  Scandinavian  immigrants 
per  year  for  the  last  thirty  years, — a  safe  minimum — and 
an  average  of  $50  cash  per  capita,  the  annual  addition  to 
the  cash  capital  of  the  country  would  be  at  least  $2,500,000. 
Whatever  may  be  gained  in  this  way  is,  however,  offset 
by  the  steady  stream  of  remittances  flowing  from  America 
to  Northern  Europe,  especially  during  the  last  quarter  of 
a  century,  and  by  the  large  sums  spent  by  the  thousands  of 
erstwhile  immigrants  returning  to  their  old  homes  for  a 
winter  or  for  a  vacation.39  Many  a  son,  prospering  in 
America,  has  contributed  regularly  to  the  support  or  added 
comfort  of  his  parents  or  family  in  the  fatherland;  every 
holiday  season  swells  the  mail  sacks  with  letters  containing 
money-orders,  and  drafts.  During  1902  at  least  $1,000,000 
was  sent  to  Norway  alone.40  In  the  last  two  months  of 
1903,  it  is  estimated  that  $3,000,000  went  from  the  United 
States  to  the  Scandinavian  countries  in  these  personal  re- 
mittances.41 Another  sort  of  remittance  which  does  not 
immediately  take  the  form  of  cash,  is  the  prepaid  ticket 
for  passage  to  an  American  port,  sent  to  friends  and  rela- 
tives to  assist  them  to  emigrate.  The  United  States  consuls 
at  Bergen  and  Gothenburg  reported  that  about  one-half 
of  the  emigrants  from  Norway  and  Sweden  in  1891  made 
the  journey  on  tickets  sent  from  America.42  In  this  connec- 
tion, it  should  be  noted  that  the  money  thus  spent  by  immi- 
grants is  not  in  the  nature  of  a  permanent  investment  of 
hoarded  earnings;  it  is  not  the  remittance  of  "birds  of 
passage"  like  some  Italians,  for  example,  who  will  shortly 
follow  it.  In  comparison  with  the  millions  of  dollars  sent 

^Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Immigration  of  Wisconsin,  1880, 
4.  A  writer  in  the  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Sept.  10,  1889,  states,  "Many  of 
them  (Germans  and  Scandinavians)  bring  abundant  means  to  secure  large 
farms  and  stock  them  well." 

39Brace,  The  Norsefolk,  146;  Harper's  Weekly,  Sept.  i,  1888;  Gamla 
och  Nya  Hemlandet,  Jan.  14,  1903  (Malmo  correspondent). 

40Special  Consular  Reports,  XXX,  116  (1903,  Christiania). 

*lAmerika,  Jan.  8,  1904. 

*2Letter  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  etc.,  1892,  45,  50,  65. 


325]  ECONOMIC   FORCES   AT  WORK  95 

home  by  Italian  immigrants  in  an  average  year,  the  Scandi- 
navian remittances  and  spendings  are  almost  insig- 
nificant.43 

From  the  first,  great  numbers  of  the  immigrants  have 
come  with  no  other  capital  than  strong  and  willing  hands, 
stout  hearts,  and  an  unchanging  land-hunger.  They  served 
for  a  time  as  laborers  on  the  older  farms,  in  town,  in  the 
lumber  camps,  or  in  railroad  construction,  saving  their 
money,  learning  American  ways,  and  acquiring  some 
English,  but  as  soon  as  money  enough  was  saved,  perhaps  in 
a  year,  to  buy  forty  or  eighty  acres  of  government  land  at 
the  minimum  price,  a  yoke  of  oxen  or  a  team  of  horses,  and 
a  few  necessary  farm  tools  and  implements,  the  prospective 
farmer  moved  upon  new  land  and  started  out  for  himself. 
Under  the  Homestead  Act  of  1862  the  amount  of  capital 
required  for  the  beginning  of  operations  was  greatly  re- 
duced, and  it  was  under  this  act  that  the  lands  of  the 
northwestern  States  beyond  the  Mississippi  were  so  rapidly 
taken  up.44 

A  typical  illustration  of  the  process  described  is  found 
in  Levor  Timanson,  who  came  with  his  father  in  1848,  at 
the  age  of  eighteen,  to  Rock  County,  Wisconsin,  where  he 
worked  for  several  years  as  farm  laborer,  carpenter,  and 
mason.  He  visited  Iowa  and  Minnesota  in  1853  in  search 
of  satisfactory  land;  finding  it  at  Spring  Grove,  in  the 
latter  State,  he  settled  down  there  as  a  grain  and  stock 
farmer.  In  1882  he  owned  840  acres  of  land  of  which  550 
acres  were  under  cultivation.45  A  study  of  the  histories  of 
counties  and  townships  in  eastern  Iowa  and  Minnesota,  and 
of  the  biographies  which  usually  accompany  them,  reveals 
clearly  the  fact  that  the  larger  part  of  the  Scandinavian 
farmers  resident  in  those  counties  in  the  sixties  and  seven- 

43"In  an  average  year  the  Italian  bankers  of  New  York  City  alone 
sent  to  Italy  from  $25,000.000  to  $30,000,000.  This  is  said  to  have  an 
appreciative  effect  upon  the  money  market."  Lippincott's  Magazine, 
LVIII,  234  (1896). 

44"An  Act  to  secure  Homesteads  to  Actual  Settlers  on  the  Public 
Domain,"  U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large,  1861-2,  392. 

**History  of  Houston  County,  Minnesota,  481. 


96  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [326 

ties  spent  from  one  to  five  years  in  Wisconsin  or  Illinois 
before  moving  into  the  Farther  West.46  They  were  in  turn 
apprentices  and  journeymen,  and  finally  attained  to  the 
full  dignity  of  masters  of  their  own  estates. 

The  economic  as  well  as  the  social  importance  of  the 
tendency  of  the  Scandinavian  immigrants  to  settle  upon  the 
unoccupied  farm  lands  of  the  West,  can  scarcely  be  over- 
emphasized. It  gains  still  more  striking  significance  when 
the  figures  showing  such  settlement  are  compared  with 
those  of  some  other  races  which  have  more  recently  con- 
tributed largely  to  the  immigrant  population ;  for  the  man 
who  owns  and  develops  a  farm  necessarily  makes  a  per- 
manent, long-time  investment  of  himself  and  his  family  in 
a  reproductively  extractive  industry ;  while  the  wage-earner 
in  the  mines  or  in  lumbering  is  quite  likely  to  be  a  "bird  of 
passage,''  engaged  in  destructively  extractive  industries, 
with  only  vague  notions  of,  or  longings  for,  citizenship  and 
its  responsibilities.  Professor  John  R.  Commons,  perhaps 
the  best  statistical  authority  on  this  subject,  gives  some 
striking  figures  illustrative  of  the  farm-ward  tendencies 
of  different  alien  elements,  showing  the  percentage  of  total 
number  of  males  in  1890  engaged  (1)  on  farms,  (2)  as 
farmers  and  planters,  and  (3)  as  laborers  not  specified:47 

(I)  (2)  (3) 

Farm  Labor        Farmers  Laborers 

Danes    40.78  27.41  13.30 

Swedes   and  Norwegians 38.26  27.12  14-95 

Germans  27.04  21.14  H-58 

English  18.53  14-82  747 

Irish  14.71  11.60  25.16 

Russians  15.19  11.03  10.96 

Italians   5.81  3-91  34-15 

Hungarians   3.92  2.13  32-44 

^History  of  Goodhue  County,  Minnesota;  History  of  Houston  County, 
Minnesota;  Sparks,  History  of  Winneshiek  County,  Iowa.  See  the  numer- 
ous biographies  in  Nelson,  History  of  the  Scandinavians,  I,  II. 

^Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  XV,  301-302.  Mr.  R.  C.  Jones, 
assistant  superintendent  of  Castle  Garden,  New  York,  estimated,  according 
to  an  interview  in  the  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  Dec.  30,  1888,  that  about 
one  Swede  out  of  a  hundred  went  to  a  city. 


327]  ECONOMIC   FORCES   AT  WORK  97 

From  calculations  based  upon  the  reports  of  the  censuses 
of  1870,  1880,  and  1890,  it  appears  that  one  out  of  four  of 
the  Scandinavians  was  in  the  last  year  engaged  in  agricul- 
ture; of  the  Americans,  one  out  of  five;  of  the  Germans, 
one  out  of  six ;  and  of  the  Irish,  one  out  of  twelve.48 

One  of  the  very  natural  consequences  of  the  tendency 
of  the  Norse  immigrants  to  seek  agricultural  locations,  and 
to  seek  them  along  the  advancing  frontier,  is  the  township 
and  even  the  county,  particularly  in  Minnesota  and  the 
Dakotas49  peopled  almost  solidly  with  the  men  and  women 
of  one  nationality.  The  names  of  post-offices  and  town- 
ships, and  the  assessment  rolls  of  the  counties,  bear  witness 
to  the  density  of  these  settlements  which  were  made  up  of 
immigrants  in  both  the  first  and  second  stages,  composed  in 
part  of  people  coming  from  the  older  colonies  like  those  in 
Dane  County,  Wisconsin,  or  Henry  County,  Illinois,  or 
Goodhue  County,  Minnesota,  and  in  part  of  newcomers  di- 
rect from  their  Old  World  homes.  About  1880,  the  names 
of  those  whose  land  abutted  upon  the  two  railroads  travers- 
ing Houston  County,  Minnesota  showed  plainly  this  proc- 
ess of  massing.  Taken  in  order,  the  first  twenty-two  names 
were  those  of  American,  Irish,  and  German  settlers;  then 
followed  nineteen,  all  Scandinavian  save  two.50  Fillmore 
County,  Minnesota,  one  of  the  older  counties,  largely  Nor- 
wegian from  its  beginning,  and  Chisago  County,  on  the 
eastern  border  of  the  same  State,  a  stronghold  of  the 
Swedes  from  its  first  settlement,  are  excellent  examples  of 
the  economic  contributions  made  to  the  State  by  the  Scan- 
dinavian element  through  its  development  of  the  wilderness 
into  cultivated  fields  and  prosperous  villages.  Of  the  trans- 
formation of  Dakota  before  1890,  and  the  part  of  the  sons 
of  the  North  in  it,  a  writer  says :  "Most  of  them  came  with 
just  enough  to  get  on  Government  land  and  build  a 
shack Now  they  are  loaning  money  to  their  less 

48See  Nelson,  History  of  the  Scandinavians,  I,  246. 

49History  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  Valley,  281,  312,  416,  440,  511; 
History  of  Fillmore  County,  Minnesota,  344,  346;  Northwest  Magazine, 
Oct.,  1899. 

^History  of  Houston   County,  Minnesota,  286. 


98  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [328 

fortunate  neighbors Every  county  has  Norwegians 

who  are  worth  from  $25,000  to  $50,000,  all  made  since  set- 
tling in  Dakota."51   • 

In  comparing  statistics  of  such  counties  as  Fillmore 
and  Chisago,  showing  their  growth  in  wealth  and  produc- 
tivity, as  reported  in  the  decennial  census,  two  facts  regard- 
ing the  nativity  and  parentage  of  the  population  must  be 
kept  clearly  in  mind  if  the  full  significance  of  the  work  of 
the  men  of  alien  stock  is  to  be  appreciated :  first,  that  the 
increase  of  the  foreign  born  is  largely  made  up  of  adults ; 
second,  that  the  increase  of  the  native-born  is  in  reality  an 
increase  of  the  purely  Norwegian  or  Swedish  element,  the 
sons  and  daughters,  grandsons  and  granddaughters  of  for- 
eign-born parents,  for  the  census-taker,  even  in  1900,  did 
not  penetrate  beyond  the  first  degree  of  ancestry. 

The  tabulation  given  in  Appendix  II  illustrates  the 
economic  progress  of  three  Minnesota  counties  in  which  the 
Norse  factor  has  been  strong  from  the  early  days  of  their 
settlement:  Fillmore,  Chisago,  and  Otter  Tail,  one  of  the 
newer  counties  in  the  west-central  part  of  the  State.  From 
these  figures  some  conception  of  the  influence  of  the  North 
European  in  one  American  commonwealth  may  be  ob- 
tained. These  are  not  unique  cases,  but  rather  are  they 
what  might  be  called  normal  counties  of  their  class, 
counties  whose  population  is  made  up  more  or  less  of  good 
native-born  settlers  from  the  older  Eastern  States. 

Several  processes  already  discussed  will  be  easily  and 
forcibly  illustrated  by  these  tables.  In  Fillmore  County, 
for  example,  the  oldest  of  the  three,  the  increase  of  the 
foreign-born  element  was  most  rapid  in  the  decade  1870- 
1880,  while  during  the  next  ten  years  there  was  a  distinct 
falling  off,  due  beyond  any  doubt  to  the  rise  in  the  price 
of  lands  in  that  county  and  to  the  opening  up  of  new 
counties  like  Otter  Tail  where  just  as  good  land  was  to 
be  had  at  the  minimum  rate.  This  falling  off  was  paral- 
leled in  the  same  decade  in  Chisago  County,  while  both 
the  rise  and  decline  in  the  number  of  foreign-born  Nor- 

&The  Northwest  Magazine,  Oct.,  1889,  p.  32. 


329]  ECONOMIC  FORCES  AT  WORK  99 

wegians  going  into  Otter  Tail  County  occur  in  the  two 
later  decades,  1880-1890  and  1890-1900,  when  the  Dakotas 
were  filling  up. 

The  continuing  additions  to  the  acreage  of  farm  lands 
and  the  steady  transformation  of  unimproved  areas  into 
improved  areas,  indicate  the  extent  to  which  the  labor  of 
alien  hands  was  enhancing  the  value  of  the  prairies  even 
down  to  1900,  and  presumably  since  that  date.  The  figures 
for  the  increase  of  the  cash  values  of  the  farms,  including 
fences,  etc.,  but  not  improvements,  have  been  chosen  be- 
cause the  increases  in  the  total  valuations  of  counties  is 
not  infrequently  due  to  the  rise  of  considerable  villages  and 
cities,  and  to  the  building  of  railroads,  and  to  these  enter- 
prises in  contrast  with  the  evolution  of  agricultural  values, 
the  Scandinavian  is  a  comparatively  insignificant  con- 
tributor. The  extent  to  which  this  development  of  rural 
areas  may  go,  is  curiously  evidenced  in  the  names  of  the 
subdivisions  of  the  relatively  new  Otter  Tail  County.  Of 
its  sixty-two  townships  in  1900,  not  less  than  thirteen  bear 
unmistakable  Scandinavian  (Norwegian)  names — Aastad, 
Aurdal,  Norwegian  Grove,  St.  Olaf,  Tordenskjold,  Thrond- 
hjem,  etc. 

The  price  which  the  immigrant-agriculturist  was  wil- 
ling to  pay  for  his  coveted  free-hold  farm  was  not  meas- 
ured in  dollars  and  cents  alone.  In  a  very  real  way,  the 
land  was  to  become  the  property  of  the  highest  bidder,  tho 
each  one  paid  $1.25  per  acre;  the  land  was  sure  to  go  to 
him  who  would  in  the  long  run  put  the  most  of  himself 
into  the  bargain — muscle,  courage,  patience,  pride  in  his 
family,  and  the  future  of  himself  and  his  family  as  over 
against  the  present.  It  was  due  in  no  small  degree  to  the 
composite  nature  of  this  individual  investment  by  the 
man  from  Europe's  Northwest,  that  he  so  promptly  and 
intelligently  succeeded  in  acquiring  free  of  debt  his  farm 
and  home  in  the  American  Northwest.52 

52See  the  testimony  of  John  Anderson,  editor  of  Daily  Skandinaven, 
before  the  Select  (Congressional)  Committee  on  Immigration  and  Natural- 
ization, 1891.  House  Reports,  No.  3472,  51  Cong.  2  Sess.,  679-683. 


100  THK  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [330 

Another  reason  for  his  nearly  uniform  success  lies  in 
the  fact  that  he  was  brought  up  to  a  more  careful  and  in- 
tensive system  of  farming  than  'his  average  American 
neighbor.  Perhaps,  too,  he  works  harder  than  the  Ameri- 
can, but  hard  work,  long  and  unflinchingly  continued,  is  a 
fundamental  condition  of  the  success  of  a  farmer  whatever 
his  nationality.  From  the  Scandinavian  immigrant's  point 
of  view,  he  does  not  work  so  hard  in  the  United  States, 
in  order  to  gain  a  given  result, — ownership  of  his  own 
farm,  for  illustration, — as  he  would  have  had  to  work 
in  the  land  of  his  birth.  Personal  interviews  with  scores 
of  men  in  various  parts  of  the  Northwest  confirm  the 
opinion  expressed  to  Miss  Bremer  in  Wisconsin  so  far  back 
as  1850,  when  pioneering  was  as  hard  as  at  any  time  since 
the  "Sloop  Folk"  landed  in  New  York:  "About  seven 
hundred  Norwegian  colonists  are  settled  in  this  neighbor- 
hood, all  upon  small  farms I  asked  many,  both  men 

and  women,  whether  they  were  contented;  whether  they 
were  better  off  here  or  in  old  Norway.  Nearly  all  of  them 
replied,  'Yes,  we  are  better  off  here;  we  do  not  work  so 
hard,  and  it  is  easier  to  gain  a  livelihood.'  "63 

In  a  discussion  of  the  competition  of  the  immigrants 
with  American  laborers,  an  eminent  scholar  maintains 
that  the  Scandinavians  of  the  West  have  succeeded  where 
the  American  with  a  better  start  has  failed.54  He  ques- 
tions if  this  success  is  a  survival  of  the  fittest,  if  it  has  not 
been  purchased  at  the  expense  of  American  labor  which  is 
forced  elsewhere,  because  the  Americans  will  not  endure 
the  hard  work  and  live  on  the  coarse  fare,  through  which 
the  immigrants  win  their  success.55  However  true  this 
might  be  as  a  generalization  about  immigrants  as  a  whole, 
it  can  hardly  be  true  of  the  Swedes  and  Norwegians,  except 
in  so  far  as  they  have  been  more  willing  than  the  native 
American  to  live  the  life  of  a  pioneer  and  to  stick  to  the 

53Bremer,  Homes  of  the  New  World,  I,  242. 
54Mayo-Smith,  Emigration  and  Immigration,  146. 

55/fru/.,  quoting  a  letter   from   Fargo,  Dakota,  July  24,    1887,  to  the 
New   York   Times. 


331]  ECONOMIC  FORCES  AT  WORK  101 

soil.  But  this  cannot  fairly  be  called  forcing  out  American 
labor,  or  driving  the  American  to  the  wall;  immigrant 
labor  went  in  where  there  was  no  labor  of  any  kind. 
Furthermore,  up  to  1890,  there  was  certainly  plenty  of 
land  for  all  the  American,  or  native-born,  laborers  who 
desired  to  devote  themselves  to  that  sort  of  work  by  which 
the  Scandinavians  were  gaining  their  independence.  If 
the  agricultural  land  of  the  vast  West  be  looked  upon  as 
a  national  asset,  to  be  held  for  cautious  and  discriminating 
distribution  to  examined  and  approved  settlers,  then  it 
may  be  that  the  foreigner  has  occupied  land  which  might 
have  sometime  fallen  to  a  better  man. 

The  standard  of  living  among  the  Scandinavian  set- 
tlers, whether  on  the  frontier  or  in  the  towns,  has  not  been 
very  different  from  that  of  their  American  neighbors.  It 
cannot  vary  much  in  a  sod-house  on  the  prairie,  in  a  cabin 
on  a  claim,  or  in  a  log-hut  in  a  clearing,  whether  the  occu- 
pant be  of  Viking  or  Puritan  descent.56  The  food  was 
Indian  corn,  sometimes  ground  in  a  coffee-mill,  occasionally 
wheat,  milk,  fish,  wild  fowl,  pork,  and  common  vegetables ; 
the  clothing  was  often  primitive  and  always  rough,  and  in 
the  early  days,  at  least,  "men  in  wooden  shoes  and  home- 
made woolen  jackets  were  no  uncommon  sights  at  their 
religious  meetings,  or  even  when  they  were  locked  in  holy 
matrimony  before  the  altar."57  But  with  prosperity, 
Americanization,  and  the  settling  up  of  the  region  about 
them,  they  took  to  comforts  and  luxuries  just  as  soon  as 
they  could  afford  them.  During  the  autumn  of  1886  the 
writer  spent  more  than  six  weeks  in  the  family  of  a  well- 
to-do  Danish  farmer  in  central  Minnesota,  and  made  fre- 
quent calls  at  the  homes  of  Swedish  and  American 
neighbors;  very  little  perceptible  difference  could  be 
observed  in  the  standards  of  living,  whether  judged  by 
furniture,  dress,  or  food.  In  the  gradations  up  to  the 

86Langeland,  Nordmcendene  i  Amerika,  ch.  xi ;  Stromme,  Hvorledes 
Halvor  blev  Prest, — an  excellent  picture  of  life  among  the  Norwegians 
in  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota ;  Foss,  Tobias :  a  Story  of  the  Northivest. 

61 'Scandinavia,  I,  142. 


102  THE  SCAXIUXAVIAX  ELEMENT  [332 

wealthy  families  of  the  larger  towns  and  cities,  the  same 
statement  would  be  true.  If  any  modifications  were  to  be 
made,  it  would  be  that  Scandinavians  set  a  more  bountiful 
table,  and  give  more  attention  than  the  Americans  to 
festivals  and  celebrations. 

^,  The  men  of  Scandinavian  stock  have  by  no  means  de- 
Ivoted  themselves  exclusively  to  agriculture,  tho  it  has 
already  been  shown  how  dominant  with  them  is  the  desire 
for  the  possession  of  land  and  the  independence  which  that 
possession  brings.  In  business — trade,  manufacturing,  and 
finance, — and  in  the  professions,  in  all  that  differentiates 
the  village  or  urban  community  from  the  rural,  they  have, 
especially  since  1890,  played  an  active  part.  A  rising 
percentage  of  skilled  laborers  and  of  those  who  had  in  the 
Old  World  experience  with  business  affairs,  marked  the 
immigration  from  Northern  Europe  after  1880.  The 
accumulated  wealth  of  the  earlier  immigrants  sought 
investment  in  the  thriving  towns  of  the  newer  common- 
wealths of  the  Northwest.  Villages  which  sprang  up  along 
railroads,  became  cities  with  the  advent  of  other  lines; 
water  power  has  developed  fast;  the  forests  were  to  be 
turned  into  lumber  and  its  further  manufactured  products. 
The  Scandinavian  villages  and  wards  of  great  cities  evolved 
their  own  stores,  shops,  factories,  and  banks  just  as  they 
did  their  churches,  lodges,  and  other  social  organizations, 
manned  by  men  of  ambition,  ability,  skill,  and  resource- 
fulness. 

Both  in  the  cities  like  Chicago,  Minneapolis,  Rockford, 
and  Madison,  and  in  the  more  homogeneous  villages  of  the 
solidly  Scandinavian  counties,  Norwegian  and  Swedish 
merchants  and  tradesmen,  catering  to  Americans  as  well  as 
to  persons  of  their  own  nationality,  rapidly  achieved  suc- 
cess and  fortune.  Seven  years  after  landing,  a  Swedish 
immigrant  is  reported  in  1873  to  have  built  up  in  Anoka, 
Minnesota,  the  largest  grocery  establishment  in  that  sec- 
tion, doing  an  annual  business  of  $  100,000.58  In  the  city  of 
Minneapolis  one  of  the  largest  department  stores  west  of 

*8History  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  Valley,  228. 


333]  ECONOMIC   FORCES   AT   WORK  103 

Chicago,  and  probably  the  greatest  Scandinavian  business 
house  in  the  country,  is  that  of  S.  E.  Olson  &  Co.,  which 
does  a  yearly  business  of  about  $2,000,000,  and  in  the 
height  of  the  season  employs  more  than  700  persons.59 
Scattered  over  the  Northwest  are  scores  of  enterprising 
Scandinavian  individuals  and  firms  engaged  in  business 
as  merchants,  grain-dealers,  contractors,  etc.,  whose  annual 
business  passes  $100,000.60 

The  manufacturing  industries  in  which  the  Swedes  and 
Norwegians  play  the  more  active  part  are  those  closely 
related  to  agriculture  and  the  forest — the  cutting  and 
sawing  of  lumber,  the  manufacture  of  furniture,  and  the 
manufacture  of  agricultural  implements.  By  foresight 
and  shrewd  investments  in  timber  lands  in  Wisconsin  and 
Minnesota,  a  certain  Norwegian  immigrant  accumulated 
nearly  a  million  dollars;  a  Swedish  immigrant  in  like 
manner  built  up  the  C.  A.  Smith  Lumber  Company  of  Min- 
neapolis, one  of  the  great  manufacturers  of  the  upper 
Mississippi  Valley,  with  works  occupying  seventy  acres, 
employing  upwards  of  800  men,  and  with  branch  lumber 
yards  situated  in  western  Minnesota  and  in  the  Dakotas.61 

The  manufacture  of  furniture  is  the  chief  occupation 
of  the  Swedes  of  Rockford,  Illinois,  who  comprise  fully 
one-third  of  that  city's  population  of  30,000.  In  1875 
fifteen  Swedes  organized  the  Forest  City  Furniture  Com- 
pany, with  a  capital  of  $50,000;  ten  years  later,  Rockford 
was  the  second  city  in  the  country  in  the  production  of 
furniture,  and  in  1893  there  were  more  than  twenty  furni- 
ture companies  with  a  capital  varying  from  $50,000  to 
$200,000.  Nearly  all  of  these  companies  were  organized  on 
the  co-operative  basis,  nearly  all  were  composed  of  Swedes, 
and  nearly  all  were  earning  a  clear  profit  of  20  per-cent 

59S6derstr6m,  Minneapolis  Minnen,  204;  Nelson,  History  of  the 
Scandinavians,  I,  466. 

°°Ibid.,  I,  504,  467;  II,  160,  164,  193,  229,  233,  248,  261;  Soderstrom, 
Minneapolis  Minnen,  202,  203. 

61S.  A.  Quale,  a  Norwegian  immigrant  of  1869,  and  C.  A.  Smith,  a 
Swedish  immigrant  of  1867.  The  North,  May  21,  1890;  Soderstrom, 
Minneapolis  Minnen,  191. 


104  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [334 

and  upwards..62  Other  notable  instances  of  successful 
Scandinavian  manufacturers  are  John  A.  Johnson,  whose 
works  for  making  agricultural  implements  in  Madison,  Wis- 
consin, employed  about  300  men;  the  great  printing  and 
publishing  house  of  John  Anderson  &  Company  of  Chicago, 
from  which  are  issued  the  daily  and  weekly  editions  of 
"Skandinaven,''  and  the  Swedish-American  Publishing 
Company  of  Minneapolis,  publishing  the  widely  circulated 
"Svenska  Amerikanska  Posten."63 

The  economic  progress  of  the  immigrants  from  the 
Northlands  may  well  be  gauged  by  the  number  of  public  and 
private  banking  establishment  in  the  Northwest  controlled 
by  them.  Surprisingly  numerous  are  the  men  who,  after 
gaining  a  competency  as  merchants,  grain-dealers  (one  of 
these  built  twenty -five  elevators  along  the  Great  Northern 
Railway),  land  speculators,  and  lumbermen,  have  turned 
to  banking  as  their  communities  developed.  The  market 
for  capital  was  active,  ready  to  absorb  large  or  small 
amounts ;  rates  of  interest  ran  from  ten  to  twenty  per  cent. ; 
the  thrift  and  honesty  of  the  Norse  folk  were  equivalent  to 
a  bond.  Hence  small  banks  with  $25,000  and  $50,000 
capital  multiplied,  not  always  on  the  soundest  basis,  it 
should  be  said,  though  this  does  not  imply  dishonesty.  In 
Minneapolis,  between  1874  and  1900,  the  names  of  no  less 
than  six  Scandinavian  banks  appear,  the  largest  becoming 
the  strong  Swedish  American  National  Bank  with  a  capital 
of  $250,000.64  Smaller  cities  like  Sioux  City  and  Boone, 
Iowa,  have  developed  similar  sound  banks  capitalized  for 
$100,000.  Not  all  Scandinavian  bankers,  however,  have 
escaped  the  temptations  of  "high  finance,"  though  the  total 
of  failures  is  comparatively  small.  One  of  the  most  no- 
torious and  shameful  examples  of  bank-wrecking  in  recent 
years  occurred  in  Chicago  in  1906,  when  Paul  O.  Stensland, 

•2Kaeding,  Rockfords  Svenskar,  67,  95;  The  North,  Jan.  8,  1890,  July 
12,  1893. 

•3Nelson,  History  of  the  Scandinavians,  II,  209;  Soderstrom,  Minne- 
apolis Minnen,  181-189. 

•4S6derstrom,  Minneapolis  Minnen,  206;  Nelson,  History  of  the 
Scandinavians,  II,  164,  228. 


335]  ECONOMIC  FORCES  AT  WORK  105 

for  years  the  trusted  and  honored  and  admired  president 
of  the  Milwaukee  Avenue  State  Bank,  the  depository  of 
hundreds  of  working  men  and  small  tradesmen,  wrecked 
the  bank  through  speculations  in  real  estate,  fled  to  Africa, 
and  was  brought  back  and  placed  in  the  Joliet  prison  for  a 
term  of  fifteen  years.65 

As  the  regions  into  which  the  Scandinavian  immi- 
grants have  gone  so  determinedly  as  agricultural  settlers 
have  gradually  become  more  complex  in  their  economic 
structure,  these  men  and  women  have  once  more  illus- 
trated their  'notable  capacity  to  adapt  themselves  to  the 
new  conditions  and  to  share  in  new  advantages.  The  sec- 
ond and  third  generation  will  probably  develop  much  the 
same  tendency  city-ward  which  the  Americans  of  the  same 
class  show  so  markedly;  and  they  will  take  their  share  of 
the  honors  and  emoluments  of  business,  manufacturing, 
banking,  the  technical  professions,  and  the  so-called 
learned  professions,  ^f 

65The  Chicago  papers  fo/  August,  September,  and  October  give  full 
details  of  the  wrecking  of  the  bank  and  the  career  of  its  president.  See 
Chicago  Tribune,  August  9  ff.,  1906. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  RELIGIOUS  AND  INTELLECTUAL  STANDPOINT 

The  social  results  of  the  settlement  of  a  body  of  aliens 
in  any  country,  as  compared  with  the  economic,  are  far 
more  undefinable  and  elusive,  even  when  the  settlement  is 
compact  and  homogenous,  like  that  of  the  Dutch  in  New 
York  or  the  French  in  Louisiana.  But  when  a  particular 
element,  like  the  Irish  or  the  Scandinavian,  in  a  complex 
population,  is  distributed  over  a  wide  area,  with  accessions 
running  through  three-quarters  of  a  century,  the  problem 
of  its  social  influence  and  importance  becomes  vastly  more 
difficult.  No  study  or  observation  of  such  a  well-estab- 
lished racial  group,  outside  of  the  purely  statistical,  at  best 
can  reach  far  beyond  an  impression  or  an  individual  opin- 
ion ;  it  cannot  arrive  at  a  convincing  and  conclusive  scien- 
tific deduction.1  Looked  at  in  its  length  and  breadth,  the 
question  of  social  results  of  Scandinavian  immigration 
takes  various  forms.  Have  the  foreign-born  citizen  and  his 
immediate  descendants  adapted  themselves  rapidly  and 
vitally  to  the  best  American  customs  in  business,  politics, 
education,  and  religion?  Have  they  learned  English 
quickly?  What  has  been  their  attitude  towards  such  ques- 
tions as  intemperance,  slavery,  and  public  honesty?  Are 
they  re-enforcing  the  best  standards  of  public  and  private 
morality  prevailing  in  the  communities  into  which  they 
come? 

Fundamental  to  this  discussion,  is  the  general  effect 
of  the  process  of  immigration  and  new  settlement,  upon  the 
physical  and  intellectual  state  of  the  immigrant  and  his 
offspring.  It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  the  immi- 
grants of  ftie  nineteenth  century,  like  those  hardy  souls  of 
the  sixteenth,  who  left  England,  Holland,  France,  or 

1Hall,  Immigration,  ch.  viii. 

106 


337]  RELIGIOUS  AND  INTELLECTUAL  STANDPOINT  107 

Sweden,  were  the  more  adventurous  and  determined  men 
and  women  of  their  parishes,  and  that  the  incidents  and 
anxieties  of  settling  up  affairs  in  their  old  homes  and  of 
getting  off  for  America,  would  stir  to  quicker  thinking  the 
minds  of  even  the  slow  and  inert.  Then  came  the  influence 
of  adjustment  to  the  ways  of  a  new  and  larger  world,  with 
its  greater  distance,  its  more  rapid  communication,  its 
more  strenuous  activities,  its  new  language,  and  its  dif- 
ferent climate  and  diet;  all  these  re-enforced  the  original, 
quickened  impulse,  and  of  necessity  affected  both  subtly 
and  powerfully  the  mind  and  body  of  two  generations. 

The  change  has  in  general  been  for  ,the  better,  tho 
some  observers  think  they  see  a  retrogression,  especially 
in  physical  respects.  A  Norwegian  physician  who  spent 
about  nine  months  in  the  United  States  in  1892,  wrote  for 
a  Christiania  medical  journal  an  article  in  which  he  de- 
clared :  "That  the  Norwegian  race  in  the  United  States  is 
declining  physically,  every  one,  I  think,  who  has  spent  some 
time  among  our  emigrated  countrymen  there  must  admit. 
But  the  change  is  a  slow  one."  The  causes,  as  he  saw 
them,  were  the  unwholesome  climate  of  the  Northwest,  the 
unsuitable  food  of  the  farmers,  the  cold,  damp  houses  of 
the  prairies,  and  the  abuse  of  alcoholic  liquors  and  tobacco. 
By  way  of  final  summary  of  opinions,  he  states  that  "the 
general  rule  is  that,  these  dark  sides  to  the  contrary  not- 
withstanding, the  social  conditions  in  America  and  its 
democratic  institutions  are  conducive  to  individual  think- 
ing thereby  contributing  to  the  development  of  individual 
talent,  great  or  small  as  that  may  be."2 

The  views  of  Dr.  Kraft  were  more  or  less  disputed  by 
several  Norwegian  physicians  in  the  United  States,  in  \The 
North  for  January  and  February,  1893.  Dr.  Harold  Graff, 
writing  to  the  periodical  in  which  Dr.  Kraft's  article 
originally  appeared,  says :  "With  astonishing  rapidity,  the 

2Dr.  E.  Kraft,  "The  Physical  Degeneration  of  the  Norwegian  Race 
in  North  America,"  The  North,  Jan.  3,  1893, —  translation  from  Norsk 
Magazin  for  Lagevidenskaben;  Ch.  Gronvald,  "The  Effects  of  the  Immi- 
gration on  the  Norwegian  Immigrants,"  appendix  to  the  Sixth  Annual 
Report  of  the  State  Board  of  Health  of  Minnesota,  (1878),  II,  507-534. 


108  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [338 

wide  mouth  and  ungainly  nose  of  the  specific  Norwegian 
peasant  type  become  modified  and  disappear,  the  difference 
between  the  physiognomy  and  facial  expression  of  parents 

and  children  being  often  bewilderingly  great I  have 

interviewed  some  of  the  oldest  and  most  experienced 
physicians  practising  in  this  country,  and  also  other  intelli- 
gent Norwegians  who  have  travelled  among  their  country- 
men in  the  States,  without  as  yet  having  heard  any 
divergent  opinion  whatever.  All  agree  that  the  Norwegian 
race  in  every  respect  is  progressing  in  both  mind  and 
body."3  Others,  who  were  not  so  sure  of  the  physical  im- 
provement, agree  as  to  the  intellectual  quickening.  In  a 
word,  if  the  transplanting  of  the  tree  has  not  certainly 
produced  an  improved  trunk  or  foliage,  it  has  bettered  the 
quality  of  the  fruit.  The  next  logical  step  is  to  attempt  to 
estimate  the  value  of  such  fruit  in  the  American  market. 

The  two  obvious  ways  of  determining  the  influence  of 
a  foreign  element,  are  to  compare  it  with  some  other 
foreign-born  constituent  longer  and  better  known,  and  to 
compare  it  with  the  native  American.  The  latter  is  the 
fairer  criterion,  but  it  is  not  easy  to  ascertain  and  define 
what  are  the  purely  American  characteristics  with  which 
comparison  is  to  be  made.  Statistics  on  social  matters  are 
so  incomplete  that  reliance  must  be  placed  upon  the  con- 
sensus of  opinion  of  thoughtful,  sympathetic  observers  and 
students  of  American  life,  whether  they  be  statesmen  and 
philosophers  bred  in  the  United  States,  or  scholarly,  pene- 
trating foreigners  like  James  Bryce  and  Alexander  de 
Toqueville.4  Such  men  of  insight  agree  that  the  American 
ideal  comprises  love  of  freedom,  independence,  and  equal- 
ity; respect  for  law,  government,  education,  and  social 
morality  (including  reverence  for  the  family  and  the 
home) ;  and  lastly  a  willingness  to  share  the  common  bur- 
den and,  if  need  be,  to  make  a  common  sacrifice  for  the 
permanent  welfare  of  the  commonwealth. 

3The  North,  Jan.  18,  1893,  translating  the  article  mentioned. 
4Bryce,   American   Commonwealth    (3rd   ed.),    ch.   Ixxx;    Matthews, 
American  Character,  20-34;  Roosevelt,  American  Ideals,  ch.  i,  ii. 


339]  RELIGIOUS  AND  INTELLECTUAL  STANDPOINT  109 

In  acquiring  the  use  of  English  and  in  maintaining 
high  standards  of  education,  the  Scandinavians  have  an 
unimpeachable  record  which  no  other  foreign,  non-English- 
speaking  element  can  equal.  Illiteracy  in  Norway  and 
Sweden  is  almost  unknown.  Taken  together,  these  two 
kingdoms  have  less  than  one  per-cent  of  illiteracy,  and 
among  the  recruits  in  Sweden  in  1896  only  .13%  were 
unlettered,  and  only  .63%  were  unable  to  write.5  Per- 
sonal acquaintance  with  many  hundreds  of  Scandinavians, 
on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  has  failed  to  reveal  to  the 
writer  a  single  adult  who  was  unable  to  read  and  write. 

One  of  the  very  first  matters  to  receive  attention  in  a 
Scandinavian  settlement  in  the  United  States,  has  been 
the  establishment  of  a  school,  and,  as  speedily  as  possible, 
the  instruction  has  been  given  in  English,  partly  because 
the  school  laws  of  most  of  the  States  would  not  recognize 
a  public  school  conducted  in  a  foreign  language,  and 
partly  because  the  settlers  desired  to  have  the  children 
know  English.6  For  a  year  or  two  in  some  of  the  isolated 
communities,  as  in  Arendahl,  Fillmore  County,  Minnesota, 
in  1857-8,  it  was  necessary  to  conduct  the  schools  in  Swed- 
ish or  Norwegian;  but  only  rarely  has  any  attempt  been 
made  to  continue  systematic,  regular  instruction  exclu- 

sStatesinan's  Year  Book,  1900,  1049;  Kiddle  &  Schem,  Dictionary  of 
Education,  452.  In  the  latter  work,  Norway,  Sweden,  Denmark,  and 
Switzerland  are  marked  with  asterisks,  signifying  that  they  are  prac- 
tically without  illiteracy.  The  contrast  of  these  figures  with  the  per- 
centages of  illiteracy  of  some  other  European  countries  is  very  striking. 
In  1890  the  percentage  of  illiterates  in  Austria  was  40%,  in  Hungary,  54%, 
in  Italy,  in  1897,  among  conscripts,  37.3%  (reduced  from  56.7%  in  1871), 
and  among  those  persons  marrying,  males,  32.9%,  females,  52.13%  (re- 
duced respectively  from  57.73%  and  76.73%  in  1871).  For  Russia  the 
percentage  is  probably  about  80%,  perhaps  as  high  as  90%.  See  States- 
man's Year  Book,  1900,  374-375,  392,  744-745.  Statistical  returns  relating 
to  German  army  recruits  indicate  that  in  1896-7  only  about  .11%  could 
neither  read  nor  write.  Ibid.,  592.  See  also,  Hall,  Immigration,  46,  48, 
54,  61,  141. 

^History    of   Fillmore    County,   Minnesota,   346,   463, — a    Norwegian 

school  for  one  year  in  a  private  house,  then  an  English  school;  Sparks, 

History  of  Winneshiek  County,  Iowa,  16-17. 


110  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [340 

eively  in  the  mother-tongue  by  the  maintenance  of  year- 
long parish  schools.  The  immigrants  have  frequently  been 
insistent,  and  properly  so,  upon  some  scheme  by  which 
they  might  be  able  to  educate  their  children  in  the  use  of 
the  mother-tongue;  but  schools  for  this  purpose  have  usu- 
ally supplemented  rather  than  supplanted  the  ordinary 
public  school.7  In  a  very  few  localities,  like  the  older 
settlements  in  Goodhue  County  and  Fillmore  County, 
Minnesota,  Allamakee  County,  Iowa,  and  Dane  County, 
Wisconsin,  parish  schools  are  still  maintained  throughout 
the  year.8 

The  church  schools  are  more  commonly  a  sort  of 
summer  vacation  school  supported  either  by  the  persons 
whose  children  attend,  or  at  the  expense  of  the  whole  con- 
gregation; in  them  are  taught  the  language  of  the  parents 
and  the  preacher,  the  church  catechism,  and  something  of 
church  history ;  sometimes  especial  attention,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  Danish  Grundtvigian  "high  schools,"  is  given  to 
keeping  alive  the  traditions  of  the  European  kingdom  from 
which  sprang  the  immigrants.  The  teacher  of  both  the 
language  and  the  doctrines  of  religion  is  customarily  a 
student  in  some  theological  seminary  of  the  denomination 
to  which  the  congregation  belongs.  The  Lutherans  have 
kept  up  these  vacation  schools  more  consistently  than  any 
other  Scandinavian  church.  The  report  of  the  parochial 
schools  of  the  United  Norwegian  Lutheran  Church  for 
1905  showed  that  on  the  average  almost  thirty  days  were 
devoted  to  the  church  school  in  each  of  the  750  congrega- 
tions reporting.9 

The  clergy  are  mainly  active  in  this  mild  paternal- 
ism, upon  which  the  younger  people  not  infrequently  look 
with  disfavor,  for  to  the  second  generation  it  appears  an 
unnecessary  perpetuation  of  an  un-American  custom,  a 

7For  a  discussion  of  the  Bennett  Law  in  Wisconsin,  see  pp.  167  ff. 

*Beretning  om  del  syttende  Aarsmode  for  den  Forenede  norsk 
luthcrske  Kirke  i  Amerika,  1906, — "Parochialraporter  for  Aaret  1905." 

9"Sammendrag  af  Parochialraporter",  Beretning  om  det  syttende 
Aarsmode  for  dai  Forenede  iwrsk  lutherske  Kirke  i  Amerika,  1906, 
LVI;  J.  J.  Skordalsvold,  in  Nelson,  History  of  the  Scandinavians,  I,  241. 


341]  RELIGIOUS  AND  INTELLECTUAL  STANDPOINT  111 

scheme  for  emphasizing  peculiarities  and  differences  rather 
than  a  means  of  hastening  the  process  of  amalgamation. 
Sometimes  the  younger  men  have  revolted  and  broken 
entirely  with  the  Lutheran  church,  identifying  themselves 
with  American  congregations,  or  drifting  out  on  the  wide 
sea  of  religious  indifference. 

The  loyalty  of  the  Scandinavians  to  the  public  school 
system  has  been  of  far-reaching  consequence  to  the  immi- 
grants themselves  as  well  as  to  American  society.  There 
is  always  a  more  or  less  strongly  marked  tendency  among 
aliens  speaking  a  foreign  language  to  congregate  in  groups 
in  the  country  or  in  certain  wards  in  large  towns  and 
cities,  and  out  of  this  tendency  springs  a  sort  of  clannish- 
ness  which  cannot  be  avoided  and  which  is  not  peculiar 
to  any  class,  for  the  immigrants  naturally  follow  the  lines 
of  least  resistance.  They  go  to  those  whom  they  know,  to 
those  whose  speech  they  can  understand,  to  those  from 
whose  experience  they  may  draw  large  drafts  of  suggestion 
and  help.  But  this  clannishness  with  the  Swedes,  Norwe- 
gians and  Danes,  has  been  but  a  stage  in  their  evolution 
out  of  which,  through  the  gates  of  the  English  language, 
public  schools,  naturalization,  and  increased  prosperity, 
they  have  passed  to  broader  relations.  The  filling  up  of 
the  Scandinavian  quarters  of  great  cities  like  Chicago, 
Minneapolis,  and  St.  Paul,  may  modify  the  effect  of  their 
persistent  attachment  to  the  public  school;  but  so  far  the 
public  school  is  the  great  foe  to  clannishness,  and  loyalty 
to  it  one  of  the  best  evidences  of  the  desire  of  these  people 
from  the  Northern  lands  to  become  Americanized.  In  the 
cities  of  Minneapolis  and  St.  Paul,  with  their  large  Scan- 
dinavian population,  there  was  not  in  1907  a  single  parish 
in  which  the  parochial  school  lasted  through  the  year,  and 
only  a  few  in  which  vacation  schools  were  maintained. 

In  higher  education  the  Scandinavians  have  allowed 
their  denominational  zeal  to  outrun  their  judgment.  They 
have  founded  numerous  seminaries  and  so-called  colleges, 
but  almost  invariably  as  a  part  of  the  necessary  equip- 
ment of  a  religious  denomination,  for  how  could  a  self- 


112  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [342 

respecting  sect,  no  matter  how  young  or  how  slightly  dif- 
ferentiated from  its  older  brethren,  permit  its  children  to 
attend  the  schools  of  those  whose  denominational  beliefs 
or  practices  had  become  objectionable  enough  to  warrant 
a  schism  in  the  church?  A  few  of  these  institutions,  like 
Luther  College,  at  Decorah,  Iowa,  Gustavus  Adolphus  Col- 
lege at  St.  Peter,  Minnesota,  Augustana  College  at  Rock 
Island,  Illinois,  and  Bethany  College  at  Lindsborg,  Kan- 
sas, have  maintained  an  excellent  standard  of  work  and 
exercise  a  wide  and  beneficent  influence.10  The  great  ma- 
jority, however,  have  simply  wasted  resources  by  the  mul- 
tiplication of  ambitious,  struggling,  poorly-equipped,  so- 
called  colleges,  with  little  or  no  endowment,  and  often 
dependent  upon  the  congregations  of  the  denomination 
which  gave  them  birth.11 

One  of  the  results  of  the  excessive  splitting-up  of  the 
Scandinavian  churches  is  that  the  energies  which  ought  to 
be  concentrated  are  frittered  away  on  unnecessary  schools. 
A  separate  denominational  school  and  a  family  paper  seem 
to  be  indispensable  parts  of  the  machinery  of  every  newly 
organized  sect,  no  matter  how  young  or  how  small  or  how 
poor  it  may  be.12  The  number  of  these  institutions  contin- 
ually varies  with  the  ups  and  downs  of  the  denominations 
trying  to  support  them.  In  1893,  Mr.  J.  J.  Skordalsvold, 
a  graduate  of  the  University  of  Minnesota,  put  the  number 
of  Scandinavian  colleges,  schools,  and  seminaries  in  the 
United  States  at  thirty-six,  with  an  attendance  of  about 
five  thousand.13  Sixteen  of  these,  with  an  attendance  of 
twenty-five  hundred,  one-half  of  the  total,  were  located  in 
Minnesota.  By  1900  the  sixteen  had  grown  to  twenty 
schools,  having  property  worth  $500,000,  one  hundred  and 

10See  catalogs  of  these  institutions. 

"Several  of  the  Norwegian  and  Swedish  weekly  papers  supported 
by  the  different  denominations  publish  regularly  lists  of  donors  to  par- 
ticular schools,  stating  the  amount  of  money,  or  the  nature  of  the  articles 
given,  enumerating  the  books,  quantities  of  fuel,  clothing,  etc. 

"Bille,  History  of  the  Danes  in  America,  20-24, — an  excellent  account 
of  some  of  these  attempts. 


343]  RELIGIOUS  AND  INTELLECTUAL  STANDPOINT  113 

sixty  teachers,  and  three  thousand  students.14  In  that 
state,  however,  and  in  others  like  North  Dakota,  these 
schools  are  likely  to  follow  the  same  course  as  many  of 
the  schools  of  other  pioneering  Protestant  denominations, 
and  become  little  more  than  preparatory  schools  on  the 
one  hand,  or  theological  seminaries  on  the  other,  leaving 
to  the  State  university  the  maintenance  of  higher  educa- 
tion in  every  field  save  arts  and  theology.  Even  as  sec- 
ondary schools,  not  many  of  them  will  be  likely  to  survive 
the  third  generation  of  the  original  immigrants,  unless 
they  are  much  better  endowed  than  any  one  of  them  is  at 
the  present  time.13  The  Red  Wing  Seminary  (Hauge 
Synod)  of  Red  Wing,  Minnesota,  founded  in  1878,  is  essen- 
tially an  ordinary  private  secondary  school  with  a  theo- 
logical course  attached,  and  three-fourths  of  its  work  is 
conducted  in  English.16  Bethany  College  at  Lindsborg, 
Kansas,  one  of  the  three  prosperous  Swedish  colleges,  and 
perhaps  the  most  ambitious,  is  substantially  an  English- 
speaking  college,  with  nine  departments  of  instruction, 
and  in  1912  a  registration  of  919.  Only  in  the  classes  in 
Swedish  language  and  literature  is  the  instruction  given 
in  Swedish,  tho  "Swedish  is  required  of  all  students  pre- 
paring to  enter  the  ministerial  work  of  our  Swedish  Evan- 
gelical Lutheran  Church."16*  Luther  College,  the  Norwe- 
gian institution  at  Decorah,  Iowa,  has  followed  along  the 
same  course  only  not  quite  so  far.  Several  years  ago  the 
proportion  between  English  and  Norwegian  as  media  of 
instruction  was  slightly  in  favor  of  the  English  in  the 

14Nelson,  Scandinavians  in  the  United  States  (and  ed.),  317  ff. 

lsThe  World  Almanac  and  Encyclopedia,  1914,  599-609. 

Instructors     Students      Prod.  Fds.  Income 

Augsburg  Seminary  8  173  40,000          20,000 

Augustana  College  31  629  414,356        101,923 

Bethany  College  (Kan.) 44  893  55,777         93,i66 

Gustavus  Adolphus  College 23  348  75,ooo         35,328 

Luther  College  16  213  272408         37,ooo 

St.  Olaf  College  32  550  250,000         74,000 

"Interview  with  Professor  G.  O.  Brohough,  August,  1906.    See  Nel- 
son, Scandinavians  in  the  United  States,  I,  179-180. 

^'Catalogue  of  Bethany  College,  3ist  Academic  Year  (1912),  54. 


114  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [344 

college  classes;  in  the  classes  in  the  preparatory  depart- 
ment, in  the  literary  societies,  and  in  the  conversation  of 
the  students,  English  was  decidedly  predominant.17  The 
practice  of  this,  the  oldest,  and  in  some  respects  the  sound- 
est and  most  influential,  of  the  Scandinavian  colleges,  is 
sure  to  be  adopted  by  the  lesser  schools  which  survive  their 
adolescence. 

From  a  religious  standpoint,  the  most  noteworthy 
characteristic  of  Scandinavians  wherever  found,  is  their 
intense  Protestantism.  Everywhere  and  always  they  are 
uncompromising  enemies  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church, 
and  there  are  barely  enough  Catholics  among  them  in 
Europe  and  in  the  United  States  to  prove  that  it  is  possible 
to  convert  one  of  them  to  that  faith.  In  fact,  their  dislike 
of  Catholicism  is  an  instinct  coming  down  from  Reforma- 
tion times  rather  than  a  matter  of  experience  or  close-at- 
hand  observation;  but  so  strong  is  this  feeling  that  it 
colors,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  their  relations  in 
politics  and  society  in  the  United  States.  Their  distrust 
of  the  Irish  is  at  bottom  more  a  religious  than  a  racial 
instinct,  even  when  it  takes  an  active  form.  While  this 
dislike  and  suspicion  are  still  real  and  large,  it  has  un- 
doubtedly been  reduced  by  the  breaking-up  of  the  old  rigid 
lines  of  Lutheranism,  which  has  taken  place  in  the  last  two 
decades  in  the  United  States. 

Each  of  the  three  peninsular  kingdoms  of  Northern 
Europe  has  an  established  Lutheran  church,  administered 
by  bishops,  which  holds  still  the  great  majority  of  the 
people.  Toleration  has  been  generally  practiced  for  a 
half  century,  the  sole  exception  being  the  ban  against 
Jesuits  in  Norway.18  Of  all  the  Protestant  churches,  none 
is  more  rigidly  orthodox  than  the  Lutheran,  none  is  more 
unwilling  to  admit  changes  in  its  traditional  creed;  only 
a  few  years  ago,  the  Norwegian  Synod  in  America  re-af- 
firmed its  belief  in  the  literal  inspiration  of  the  Bible. 

1TA.   Estrem,   "A   Norwegian-American   College,"   Midland  Monthly, 
I,  605-611. 

16The  Statesman's  Year  Book,  1900,  491,  1048,  1062. 


345]  RELIGIOUS  AND  INTELLECTUAL  STANDPOINT  115 

Yet  in  spite  of  this  conservatism,  the  Lutherans  settled  in 
the  United  States  have  invariably  rejected  the  episcopal 
form  of  government,  and  have  organized  upon  a  more  or 
less  democratic  basis.  No  matter  how  loyal  they  were  to 
the  Establishment  in  the  Old  World,  a  bishop  has  not 
appeared  to  be  necessary  to  their  happiness  or  salvation 
in  the  New.  The  Lutheran  Church  proper  has  kept  within 
its  folds  a  much  larger  percentage  of  Swedes  than  of  Nor- 
wegians in  the  United  States,  the  characteristic  independ- 
ence of  the  latter  leading  many  of  them  even  farther  than 
mere  separation  from  the  mother-church.  The  persistence 
of  the  centrifugal  force  of  dissent  shows  itself  again  and 
again  in  the  violent  polemics  and  divisions  which  have 
marked  the  course  of  Norwegian  church  history  in  Amer- 
ica.19 While  this  divisiveness  may  in  some  degree  be  due 
to  the  fashion  set  by  the  early  settlers  of  whom  many  were 
dissenters,  probably  the  deeper  cause  is  to  be  found  in  the 
general  freedom  from  religious  restriction  and  prescription 
which  characterizes  the  whole  United  States  and  especially 
the  West. 

Even  the  more  extreme  sects,  in  regard  to  belief  and 
practice,  have  been  recruited  from  among  the  Scandina- 
vians both  before  and  since  their  coming  to  this  country. 
The  Mormons  were  early  at  work  as  missionaries  in  North- 
ern Europe  and,  as  has  been  stated  above,  won  many 
converts,  particularly  in  Denmark,  from  whose  immigra- 
tion Utah  mainly  profited.  In  1900  Utah  had  a  total 
foreign-born  population  of  53,777,  of  whom  9132  were 
Danes;  7025,  Swedes;  and  2128,  Norwegians.  The  real 
result  of  the  missionary  work,  however,  is  better  seen  in 
the  figures  for  persons  having  both  parents  born  in  a 
specified  country  and  residing  in  Utah  in  1900:  Danes, 
18,963;  Swedes,  12,047;  Norwegians,  3,466;  total,  34,476.20 

l9Gjerset,  "The  United  Norwegian  Lutheran  Church,"  in  Nelson, 
History  of  the  Scandinavians,  I,  229-242. 

-^Twelfth  Census,  /poo,  Population,  Pt.  I,  Tables  33  and  39;  H.  H. 
Bancroft,  Utah,  441,  431 ;  Montgomery,  The  Work  Among  the  Scandi- 
navians, 8.  Mr.  Montgomery,  the  superintendent  of  Minnesota  for  the 
American  Home  Missionary  Society  (1886),  laments  the  fact  that  very 


110  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [346 

The  American  churches  and  missionary  societies  were 
not  unmindful  of  the  needs  of  the  Scandinavians  scattered 
over  the  Middle  West  in  the  early  days  of  its  development, 
and  in  zealous  and  effective  fashion  gave  them  aid.  The 
work  of  the  Hedstrom  brothers  in  New  York  and  in  the 
West,  already  described,  reflects  credit  on  the  Methodist 
Church.  Once  at  least,  help  came  to  them  from  an  unex- 
pected source:  Jenny  Lind,  the  "Swedish  Nightingale," 
devoted  to  charity  the  proceeds  of  a  concert  in  New  York, 
in  November,  1850,  and  among  the  items  of  the  distribution 
of  the  total  of  f 5073.20  by  a  committee,  is  "To  the  Relief 
of  the  Poor  Swedes  and  Norwegians  in  the  city  of  New 
York  per  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hedstrom,  |273.20.  To  the  distri- 
bution of  Swedish  Bibles  and  Testaments,  in  New  York."21 
Besides  the  Bethel  Ship  in  New  York  Harbor  (1845),  this 
same  church  established  a  Scandinavian  mission  in  the 
Rock  River  Conference,  in  Illinois,  in  1849,  and  two  others 
in  Iowa  and  Wisconsin  in  1850.  Three  years  later  the 
report  showed  two  Swedish  missions  with  four  missiona- 
ries, and  two  Norwegian  missions  with  four  missionaries.22 

The  American  Lutheran  churches  undertook  to  aid 
their  co-religionists,  and  in  1850  the  Pittsburg  Synod  and 
the  Joint  Synod  of  Ohio  each  sent  one  of  its  ministers  into 
the  Northwest,  but  the  epidemic  of  cholera  caused  them 
to  hurry  back  to  their  former  homes.23  The  real  support 
of  some  of  the  immigrant  Lutheran  missionaries  came 
from  the  American  Home  Missionary  Society  (Congrega- 
tional ) .  One  of  the  men  thus  assisted  was  Paul  Anderson 

large  numbers  of  the  Scandinavians  "have  become  converts  to  Mormon- 
ism,  and  have  'gathered'  to  Utah,"  and  adds  further :  "I  have  before  me 
the  official  statistics  of  the  Mormon  church  (not  easily  obtained)  giving 
a  report  of  their  missionary  work  in  Scandinavia  for  each  year  from 
1851  to  1881.  They  report  that  their  converts  in  these  lands  during  these 
thirty-one  years  reached  the  enormous  total  of  132,766  persons,  and  that  of 
these  21,000  emigrated  to  Utah."  From  a  beginning  of  four  elders  of  the 
Mormon  church  at  work  in  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Norway  in  1850,  the 
force  increased  to  sixty-one  missionaries  at  work  in  1881. 

21Rosenberg,  Jenny  Lind  in  America,  ~g. 

22Simpson,  Cyclopedia  of  Methodism,  785. 

23The  North,  Aug.  30,  1893,  quoting  from  The  Workman. 


347]  RELIGIOUS  AND  INTELLECTUAL  STANDPOINT  117 

(Norland)  who  came  from  Norway  in  1843,  and  received 
a  part  of  his  education  in  the  new  Congregational  college 
at  Beloit.  He  was  chosen  pastor  of  the  first  Norwegian 
Lutheran  Church  in  Chicago  in  1848,  and  journeyed  to 
Albany,  New  York,  to  be  ordained  by  a  Lutheran  minister, 
but  he  nevertheless  served  under  a  commission  from  the 
Congregational  Society,  and  made  reports  to  it  for  several 
years.24 

In  a  similar  manner  this  Society  supported  for  several 
years  the  missionary  labors  of  Lars  Paul  Esbjorn,  a  gradu- 
ate of  Upsala  University,  who  was  ordained  a  Lutheran 
clergyman  when  he  emigrated  in  1849,  and  likewise  the 
labors  of  T.  N.  Hasselquist.  Esbjorn  was  appointed  a 
missionary  of  the  Society  in  December,  1849,  on  the  recom- 
mendation of  the  Central  Association  of  Congregational 
Ministers  of  Illinois,  to  wrhom  he  presented  his  credentials 
and  by  whom  he  was  examined  and  received  into  the 
Association.25  He  was  re-appointed  year  by  year,  making 
reports  from  1851  to  1854.26  Hasselquist  makes  acknowl- 
edgment of  his  obligations  to  the  Society  in  a  letter  of 
July,  1853,  saying  that  he  rejoices  "in  connection  with 
your  in  the  highest  sense  benevolent  Society,  without 
which  it  would  have  been  impossible  for  me  to  do  for  my 
scattered  countrymen  what  I  have  done I  give 

24Jensson,  American  Lutheran  Biographies,  25  ff ;  The  Home  Mission- 
ary, XXII,  263,  264;  XXIII,  119.  In  Anderson's  report  for  1850  is  an 
account  of  a  visit  to  Dane  County,  Wisconsin,  where  'one  of  the  Formal- 
ists,' after  five  years  of  labor  had  failed  to  bring  much  enlightenment. 
"There  are  some  four  thousand  or  more  Norwegians  in  one  settlement, 
about  three-quarters  of  whom  are  members  of  this  man's  church,  and  the 
rest  are  sheep  without  a  shepherd.  They  had  had  preaching  there  for  the 
last  five  years,  but  such  gross  immorality  I  had  never  witnessed  be- 
fore. .  .  .  We  have  no  reasonable  ground  to  hope  that  a  single  individual 
of  those  three  thousand  souls  is  converted  to  God ;  for  all  are  intemperate 
and  profane.  ...  Of  all  I  saw  (and  I  saw  a  great  many)  two  out  of 
three  were  intoxicated,  or  had  been  drinking  so  that  it  was  offensive  to 
come  within  the  sphere  poisoned  by  their  breath ;  and  of  every  two  I 
heard  talking  together  one  or  both  profaned  their  Maker." 

25The  Home  Missionary,  XXIII,  250,  263. 

*«Ibid.,  XXIV,  238;  XXIV,  287. 


118  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [348 

humble  thanks  to  the  Home  Missionary  Association  which 
out  of  Christian  benevolence  helps  to  build  up  the  Kingdom 
of  Christ  among  scattered  Swedes  who  are  almost  all  very 
poor,  but  still  love  the  word  of  God."27  In  1852  the  Society 
appointed  the  Rev.  Ole  Anderson  [Andrewson?]  to  the 
charge  of  the  Scandinavian  church  in  Racine,  Wisconsin, 
and  two  years  later  he  reports  to  the  Society  from  La  Salle 
County,  Illinois.28 

Since  the  Civil  War  and  the  great  increase  in  the 
numbers  of  immigrants,  the  home  missionary  efforts  of  the 
Methodists,  Congregationalists,  and  Baptists  have  been 
carried  on  with  persistence,  if  not  always  with  perfect 
wisdom.  In  1911  the  Methodists  had  five  Swedish  Con- 
ferences with  222  churches,  a  membership  of  about  18,000, 
and  property  valued  at  upwards  of  $2,000,000,  and  two 
Norwegian-Danish  Conferences,  with  119  churches,  6,300 
members,  and  property  worth  $400,000. 29  The  cost  of  this 
work  to  the  Methodist  Missionary  Society  is  not  far  from 
$50,000  per  year.30  The  Baptists  began  their  proselyting 
work  in  Norway  and  Sweden,  and  have  prosecuted  it  stead- 
ily in  the  Northwest  since  the  establishment  of  the  first 
Swedish  Baptist  church  in  Rock  Island,  Illinois,  in  1852. 
In  1912  the  church  reports  showed  18  Swedish  confer- 
ences, 374  churches,  28,000  members,  and  current  income  of 
about  $350,000,  and  also  eleven  Norwegian-Danish  confer- 
ences, 94  churches,  5,900  members,  and  current  income  of 
$65,500.31  The  Congregationalists  have  pushed  their  de- 
nominational interests  in  like  manner,  and  in  1913  had 
about  one  hundred  churches,  with  rather  more  than  six 

27 The  Home  Missionary,  XXVI,  73. 

28/&»Y.,  XXV,  77;   XXVI,  268. 

29Liljegren,  "Historical  Review  of  Scandinavian  Methodist  in  the 
United  States,"  in  Nelson,  History  of  the  Scandinavians,  I,  208;  The 
Methodist  Year  Book,  1912,  42-45. 

30Nelson,  History  of  the  Scandinavians,  I,  337;  The  Methodist  Year 
Book,  1912,  90-92. 

31Newman,  A  Century  of  Baptist  Achievement,  126;  Nelson  (and 
Peterson),  History  of  the  Scandinavians,  I,  202;  Annual  of  the  Northern 
Baptist  Convention,  1913,  189. 


349]  RELIGIOUS  AND  INTELLECTUAL  STANDPOINT  119 

thousand  members.32  Besides  these  churches  regularly 
connected  with  the  Congregational  organization,  there  are 
about  one  hundred  congregations  of  the  Swedish  Mission 
Union,  and  the  group  of  independent  congregations  whose 
faith  and  practice  are  closely  allied  with  those  of  the 
Congregationalists.33  The  Unitarian  church  has  endeav- 
ored to  organize  congregations,  spending  f  25,000  on  one 
church  in  Minneapolis  in  sixteen  years.34  A  few  Protest- 
ant Episcopal  parishes  also  exist  among  the  Swedes, 
chiefly  in  the  large  cities.35 

The  three  denominations  first  mentioned  have  for 
many  years  maintained,  in  their  respective  western  theo- 
logical seminaries,  departments  or  professorships  for  the 
education  of  young  men  for  ministerial  service  among  the 
immigrants  from  the  Northlands.  At  the  Chicago  Theo- 
logical Seminary  (Congregationalist)  the  Dano-Norwegian 
department  was  organized  in  1884,  with  one  professor  and 
two  students ;  in  the  following  year  a  Swedish  department 
was  added,  the  professor  being  chosen  from  the  Swedish 
Free  Mission  Church.  In  1906  these  two  departments  had 
each  two  professors  and  respectively  thirteen  and  twenty- 
seven  students,  and  published  a  religious  paper,  Evangel- 
isten.BG  Besides  the  Garrett  Biblical  Institute  (Methodist), 
Northwestern  University  has  two  similar  departments, 
with  thirty-one  students  in  the  Swedish,  and  sixteen  in  the 
Norwegian-Danish  section.37  In  the  Divinity  School  of  the 
University  of  Chicago  (Baptist),  the  same  departments 
appeared  up  to  1912;  in  1897  there  were  twenty-two  stu- 
dents in  the  Dano-Norwegian  Department,  and  thirty-five 

32Congregational  Year  Book,  1914.  Cf.  Nelson,  Scandinavians  in  the 
United  States,  I,  346;  Montgomery,  Work  among  the  Scandinavians  (1888), 
and  a  "Wind  from  the  Holy  Spirit"  in  Norway  and  Sweden,  7-8,  109-112. 

33S6derstrom,   Minneapolis   Minnen,   231-236. 

34Cosmopolitan,  Oct.,  1890;  Nelson,  Scandinavians  in  the  United 
States,  I,  337;  Soderstrom,  Minneapolis  Minnen,  249-250. 

35S6derstr6m,   Minneapolis   Minnen,  237-241. 

36Year  book  of  the  Chicago  Theological  Seminary,  1906;  Montgomery, 
The  Work  Among  the  Scandinavians  (1888),  9-12,  22. 

^Catalogue  of  the  Northwestern  University,  1913-1914,  379-380,  478. 


120  .         THK  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [350 

in  the  Swedish;  for  1905,  the  corresponding  figures  were 
twenty-four  students,  with  one  professor  and  two  instruct- 
ors, and  thirty-four  students,  with  two  professors  and  one 
instructor.  Both  departments  were  dropped  after  1913. 38 

So  far  as  the  movements  represented  by  these  mission- 
ary endeavors  and  by  the  organization  of  schools  help  to 
furnish  church  privileges  to  those  beyond  the  reach  of 
other  Protestant  churches — since  the  Catholics  are  out  of 
the  question — they  are  admirable,  accomplishing  much 
good.  But  when  they  cease  to  be  efforts  to  extend  relig- 
ious opportunities,  when  they  are  mainly  devoted  to 
swinging  men  and  women  already  Christian  from  one 
denomination  to  another,  they  simply  add  one  more  factor 
to  the  inexcusable  competition  which  too  often  character- 
izes the  home  missionary  activity,  even  when  it  does  not 
degenerate  into  a  mere  scramble  for  denominational  ad- 
vantage. The  results  in  very  many  cases  have  been  sadly 
disproportionate  to  the  expenditures.39 

Not  all  the  forces,  however,  have  been  centrifugal; 
the  divided  body  of  Lutherans  has  attempted,  with  varying 
success,  to  effect  permanent  union.  Since  1890  the  centri- 
petal reaction  has  been  strong,  gaining  impetus  from  the 
highly  significant  efforts  of  the  branches  of  the  Norwegian 
Lutherans  in  a  synod  held  in  that  year  in  Minneapolis,  to 
create  a  single  organization.  The  United  Norwegian 
Lutheran  Church,  formed  June  13,  1890,  was  made  up  of 
the  Norwegian  Augustana  Synod,  the  Norwegian-Danish 
Conference,  and  the  Anti-Missourian  Brotherhood,  thus 
becoming  the  strongest  of  all  the  American  Norwegian 
churches,  numbering  1,122  congregations,  about  120,000 
members,  and  having  property  valued  at  more  than  $1,500,- 
OOO.40  But  old  antagonisms  and  animosities,  generated  in 
the  bitterness  of  religious  controversy,  were  not  easily 

^Annual  Register  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  1904-5;  1912-1913,  311. 

89Nelson  (and  Skordalsvold),  "Historical  Review  of  the  Scandinavian 
Churches  in  Minnesota,"  History  of  the  Scandinavians,  I,  335-349. 

*°Ibid.,  I,  236ff. ;  Jacobs,  History  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church 
in  the  United  States,  513;  Minneapolis  Tribune,  June  14,  1800. 


351]  RELIGIOUS  AND  INTELLECTUAL  STANDPOINT  121 

overcome,  and  disputes  soon  arose  to  disturb  the  life  of 
the  United  Church.  The  chief  of  these  related  to  the  con- 
trol of  certain  educational  institutions,  especially  Augs- 
burg Seminary  (theological)  in  Minneapolis.  So  acute 
was  the  factional  quarrel  that  it  was  taken  into  the  courts 
in  1893,  and  continued  on  until  1898,  when  the  "Augsburg 
strife"  was  settled  out  of  court  by  mutual  agreement. 
Meantime  the  Augsburg  party  had  withdrawn  from  the 
United  Church,  taking  some  40,000  members,  keeping  the 
Seminary,  worth  about  |60,000,  but  giving  up  to  the 
United  Church  the  endowment  fund  of  about  |40,000.41  In 
spite  of  factions,  secessions,  and  the  expulsion  of  twelve 
congregations,  the  United  Church  as  a  whole  prospered. 
Its  annual  report  for  1905  gave  the  following  statistics: 
congregations,  more  or  less  closely  affiliated,  1,325;  minis- 
ters and  professors,  453 ;  communicants,  267,000 ;  property, 
$715,000.42  While  the  United  Church  was  the  largest, 
there  were  no  fewer  than  four  other  branches  of  Norwegian 
Lutherans  in  1914.43 

In  contrast  with  the  Norwegians,  the  Swedes  have 
manifested  a  commendable  unity  in  keeping  the  faith  once 
delivered  to  them  by  the  fathers,  the  chief  exception  being 
the  Swedish  Evangelical  Mission  Covenant,  which  can 
scarcely  be  called  Lutheran.  The  great  Swedish  Lutheran 
Augustana  Synod,  one  of  the  constituent  members  of  the 
General  Council  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church  in 
America,  stood  staunchly  united  in  the  midst  of  many 
changes  in  other  branches  of  the  church.  Under  the  broad 
name  of  the  Scandinavian  Evangelical  Lutheran  Augus- 
tana Synod  of  North  America,  which  comprised  both  Nor- 
wegians and  Swedes  down  to  1870,  it  grew  rapidly,  setting 
its  face  sternly  against  the  New  Lutheranism  which  sought 
to  modify  the  old  rigidity  of  doctrine  and  practice.  In 


41Nelson,  History  of  the  Scandinavians,  I,  217-224,  263;  U.  S.  Eleventh 
Census,  1890,  Churches,  452. 

*2Beretning  om  det  syttende  Aarsmdde  for  den  Forenede  norsk 
lutherske  Kirke  i  Amerika,  140  and  LVI. 

43lVorld  Almanac  and  Encyclopedia,  1914,  538-539. 


122  THK  SCAMMXAVIAN    KI.KMKXT  [352 

1894  the  word  Scandinavian  was  dropped.44  By  1899  the 
Synod  represented  900  congregations,  200,000  members, 
and  a  material  estate  of  f  4,200,000.4"' 

The  break-up  of  the  Lutheran  church  is  not  wholly  to 
be  regretted  when  viewed  in  relation  to  the  process  of 
Americanization,  for  the  church  has  usually  been  a  strong- 
hold of  traditionalism  and  conservatism.  Perhaps,  too,  the 
vigorous  religious  and  ecclesiastical  disputes,  wasteful  of 
energy  and  of  money  as  they  sometimes  seem,  have  contrib- 
uted to  a  wholesome  and  pervasive  intellectual  activity 
not  altogether  unlike  the  results  of  the  Puritan  disputa- 
tions. So  careful  a  student  of  Northwestern  immigrants 
as  Mr.  O.  N.  Nelson  is  inclined  to  the  opinion  that  the 
contentions  of  the  Lutherans  may  have  benefited  the 
church.  "Close  observation  has  convinced  us  that  if  there 
had  been  peace  instead  of  war,  the  Norwegian  Lutherans 
in  the  State  (Minnesota)  would  have  numbered  several 
thousand  less  than  they  do.  It  may  not  seem  pious  to  say 
so,  but  many  a  worldly-minded  Viking  has  become  so 
interested  in  the  fight  that  he  has  joined  the  faction  with 
which  he  sympathized  in  order  to  assist  in  beating  the 
opposing  party."46 

The  church  services  in  the  great  majority  of  cases  are 
still  conducted  in  the  mother-tongue.  In  the  United  Nor- 
wegian Lutheran  Church,  in  1905,  for  example,  the  services 
in  Norwegian  numbered  30,407  as  against  1,542  in  Eng- 
lish, and  out  of  1,300  congregations  reporting,  no  more 
than  six  held  services  in  English  only,  including  two  large 
congregations  in  Chicago  and  Milwaukee.47  Five  other 
congregations  conducted  more  services  in  English  than  in 
Norwegian;  in  ten  localities  the  numbers  were  equal;  and 
in  twenty-two,  they  were  about  equal,  making  a  total  of 

44Nelson,  History  of  the  Scandinavians,  I,  219. 

**Ibid.,  I,  217;  Carroll,  The  Religious  Forces  of  the  United  States 
(rev.  ed.)  190. 

46Nelson,  History  of  the  Scandinavians,  I,  339. 

47Beretning  out  det  syttende  Aarsmode  for  den  Forenede  norsk 
lutherskc  Kirke  i  Amcrika,  1906,  XLIV. 


353]  RELIGIOUS  AND  INTELLECTUAL  STANDPOINT  123 

forty-three  in  which  English  figured  prominently.48  The 
Hon.  N.  P.  Haugen,  speaking  on  Norway  Day  at  the 
World's  Columbian  Exposition,  in  Chicago,  commented  on 
the  fact  that  a  Lutheran  church  had  just  been  dedicated, 
in  which  English  alone  would  be  used,  and  said  signifi- 
cantly :  "Twenty  years  ago  our  theologians  would  not 
have  entertained  such  a  proposition."49  Now  the  younger 
Lutheran  preachers  are  expected  to  be  able  to  preach  both 
in  their  mother- tongue  and  in  English. 

The  conduct  of  services  in  non-English  languages  will 
and  should  continue  so  long  as  there  is  a  considerable  body 
of  men  and  women  who  emigrated  too  late  to  learn  the  new 
language  well  enough  to  stand  that  final  linguistic  test, 
the  power  to  worship  genuinely  and  satisfyingly  in  the 
adopted  speech.  This  means  that  the  churches  will  use  the 
foreign  speech  until  the  generation  of  the  foreign-born 
ceases  to  be  predominant,  and  in  the  cities,  perhaps  while 
the  second  generation  is  in  the  majority ;  but  children  who 
receive  their  education  in  the  public  schools  or  other  Eng- 
lish speaking  schools,  will  require  that  their  religious 
instruction  and  their  devotional  exercises  be  conducted  in 
English. 

The  children  and  grandchildren  of  the  immigrants, 
except  in  certain  large  and  compact  settlements,  chiefly  in 
the  cities,  prefer  English,  and  commonly  use  that  language 
in  conversation  and  in  correspondence  with  each  other. 
In  the  Swedish  and  Norwegian  wards  of  such  cities  as 
Chicago,  Minneapolis,  St.  Paul,  and  Rockford,  and  in  a 
county  like  Goodhue  in  Minnesota,  where  the  presence  of 
large  numbers  of  the  foreign-born  makes  the  use  of  the 
foreign  tongue  imperative  in  the  homes,  streets,  markets, 
and  places  of  business,  and  where  the  news  is  read  in  a 
Scandinavian  daily  or  weekly,  the  tendency  to  keep  to  the 
speech  of  their  ancestors  is  strong.  The  preacher  and  the 
politician  alike  understand  this,  and  the  literature, 
speeches,  and  even  the  music,  in  the  campaigns  for  per- 

™Ibid.,  II-LV. 

*°Daily  Skandinaven,  May  24,  1893. 


124  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [354 

sonal  and  civic  righteousness  are  presented  in  no  unknown 
tongue,  as  the  theological  seminaries  and  Scandinavian 
departments  in  other  institutions,  and  the  Swedish  and 
Norwegian  political  orators  in  critical  years,  bear  abun- 
dant witness. 

Co-ordinate  with  the  school  and  the  church,  as  a  social 
force  to  be  estimated,  is  the  press.  Newspapers  and  peri- 
odicals of  various  sorts  in  foreign  languages  inevitably 
follow  the  settlement  of  any  considerable  number  of  aliens 
in  a  given  community,  for  people  of  education  and  ambition 
will  look  in  a  familiar  medium  for  their  news  and  gossip, 
their  instruction  in  commerce  and  politics,  as  well  as  their 
teaching  in  religion.  So  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  on  the 
Pacific  Coast,  no  less  than  the  Germans,  Italians,  and 
Greeks  on  the  Atlantic,  have  their  dailies  and  their  maga- 
zines. Since  the  three  Norse  peoples,  practically  without 
illiteracy  and  with  active  and  ambitious  minds,  have  set- 
tled in  a  large  number  of  moderate-sized  communities, 
frequently  isolated  from  each  other,  and  since  their  differ- 
ences of  opinion  in  matters  religious  and  ecclesiastical  are 
often  positive  and  aggressive,  the  number  of  their  publica- 
tions of  all  kinds  since  the  middle  of  the  last  century  is 
curiously  large,  and  quite  as  remarkable  for  their  migra- 
tory and  short-lived  character. 

The  newspapers  usually  serve  as  the  chief  means  of 
keeping  informed  concerning  the  general  news  of  the  Euro- 
pean home-lands,  as  well  as  of  the  United  States.  Nearly 
all  the  larger  papers  publish  regular  European  corre- 
spondence, summaries  of  events,  letters,  and  clippings, 
under  such  headings  as  "Sverige,"  "Fra  Norge,"  etc.50 

The  newspapers  and  magazines  render  another  service 
by  the  publication,  on  the  instalment  plan,  either  as  a  part 
of  the  regular  columns  or  as  inserted  sheets,  of  standard 
works  of  the  great  Scandinavian  writers  or  of  translations 
of  the  masterpieces  of  English  and  American  authors. 
Since  these  novels,  essays,  and  histories  are  so  printed  that 
they  may  be  folded  up  and  form  a  pamphlet  for  preserva- 

60Gamla  och  Nya  Hemlandet,  Apr.  8,  1903. 


355]  RELIGIOUS  AND  INTELLECTUAL  STANDPOINT  125 

tion,  the  periodical  serves  both  as  newspaper  and  library. 
"It  was  the  Swedish-American  press  which  caused  the 
Swedish  literature,  as  it  is  in  America,  to  spring  up."51 

The  dailies  of  Chicago,  Minneapolis,  and  Duluth,  in 
particular,  publish  every  week  scores  of  communications 
from  subscribers  in  all  parts  of  the  Northwest,  in  a  de- 
partment devoted  to  neighborhood  news  or  gossip.  The 
old  settler  writes  his  reminiscences,  sometimes  a  brief  let- 
ter called  out  by  some  event,  sometimes  at  great  length, 
like  the  Eev.  J.  A.  Ottesen's  "Contribution  to  the  History 
of  our  Settlements  and  Congregations,"  which  ran  through 
eleven  numbers  of  the  weekly  paper  Amerika,  from  April 
to  September  of  1894,  and  gave  very  minute  details  of 
immigrant  families  unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation, 
as  they  had  passed  under  the  kindly  eye  of  the  patriarchal 
old  pastor  in  his  service  of  forty  years  among  them.52 
Great  numbers  of  these  communications  relate  to  the  con- 
ditions and  prospects  of  local  settlements  as  viewed  from 
the  settler's  standpoint — crop  conditions,  market  prices, 
wages,  opportunities  for  labor,  nature  and  prices  of  near- 
by land,  schools,  religion.  As  a  revelation  of  the  real  mind 
of  a  community  or  of  an  element  of  the  population,  show- 
ing the  inducements  and  motives  operating  upon  the 
immigrant,  and  his  response,  they  are  exceedingly  valuable, 
and  in  some  important  respects  almost  unique. 

The  editors  and  business  agents  of  the  larger  and 
more  enterprising  Scandinavian  papers  very  early  began 
making  journeys  about  the  country,  especially  into  the 
newer  parts,  in  the  interests  of  their  papers;  incidentally 
they  were  spying  out  the  land  for  themselves,  but  indi- 
rectly they  were  furnishing  first-hand  observations  of 
frontier  conditions  to  the  hundreds  who  were  moved  to  re- 
invest themselves  and  their  small  accumulations.  One  of 
these  "circuit  riders"  was  Johan  Schroder,  editor  of 
Fcedrelandet  off  Emigranten,  founded  at  La  Crosse,  in 
1864,  who  published  a  little  book  of  information  for  immi- 

51Gamla  och  Nya  Hemlandet,  April  8,  1903  (translated). 
52"Bidrag  til  vore  Settlementers  og  Menigheders  Historic." 


126  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [356 

grants  in  1867,  after  one  of  his  extensive  journeys  among 
the  settlements.53  Three  years  later  he  made  a  trip  into 
Minnesota  as  far  as  Otter  Tail  County — "En  Snartur  i 
Nordvesten" — and  was  deeply  impressed  with  the  possi- 
bilities of  that  fertile  section,  to  which  many  men  of  his 
nationality  were  already  looking,  as  the  Newtown  folk  in 
Massachusetts  Bay  looked  in  1636  toward  the  Connecticut 
country,  with  a  "strong  bent  of  their  spirits  to  move 
thither.''  Such  words  as  these  were  as  seed  sown  in  good 
soil:  "So  far  as  I  have  journeyed  about  in  the  prairie 
counties  of  Minnesota  and  Iowa,  I  have  not  yet  met  with 
any  county  which  in  multiplicity  of  natural  resources  can 
come  up  with  Otter  Tail.  Immigration  this  year  is  very 
strong.  Both  newcomers  direct  from  Norway,  and  older 
farmers  from  Iowa,  Wisconsin  and  Southern  Minnesota 
take  their  various  ways  thither."54  The  "America  fever" 
of  the  Old  World  was  now  the  "West  fever,"  and  again 
more  of  the  "West  fever."55  These  articles  were  not  mere 
generalizations,  but  often,  as  in  those  just  quoted  from, 
they  gave  the  exact  and  practical  information  the  reader 
would  desire — break-up  of  the  prairie  would  cost  $25  or 
$30  for  five  acres  on  which  to  grow  wheat  and  potatoes, 
cash  to  be  had  by  working  on  the  nearby  railroad  at  $2.50 
per  day,  salt  to  be  had  at  five  cents  per  pound,  butter  could 
be  sold  for  ten  cents  per  pound,  fish  and  game  were  abun- 
dant,— also  mosquitoes  !36 

The  first  of  a  long  line  of  Swedish,  Norwegian,  and 
Danish  periodicals  in  the  west,  was  a  little  paper  called 
Nordlyset  (Northern  Light),  which  began  publication  in 
the  Norwegian  colony  in  Racine  county,  Wisconsin,  in 
1847,  with  James  D.  Reymert  as  editor.  It  was  a  small 

•"'•'This  valuable  little  boak  bore  the  title  Skandinaverne  i  de  Forencde 
Stater  og  Canada,  incd  Indberetninger  og  Oplysninger  fra  200  Skandi- 
nat'iske  Scttlementcr.  En  Ledetraad  for  Emigranten  fra  del  gainle  Land 
og.  for  Nybyggeren  in  Amerika. 

"Translated  from  Fcedcrclandet  og  Emigranten,  July  21,  1870. 

"Schroder,  Skandinaverne  i  de  Forenede  Stater  og  Canada  (1867),  53. 

•''•/&»</.,  53 ;  also  a  two-and-a-half-column  article  "Vink  til  Nysettlere  i 
Minnesota,"  in  Fccdrelandet  og  Emigranten,  June  29,  1871. 


357]  RELIGIOUS  AND  INTELLECTUAL  STANDPOINT  127 

four-page  sheet  which  at  the  start  espoused  the  cause  of 
the  Free  Soil  party.  In  1850  it  changed  hands,  and  was 
re-christened  Demokraten;  tho  its  subscription  list  in- 
creased to  three  hundred,  the  venture  proved  a  failure.57 

After  1850  the  number  of  Scandinavian  newspapers 
and  religious  periodicals  multiplied  rapidly.  Langeland, 
himself  an  editor  and  publisher  of  the  time,  mentions  five 
of  these  publications  on  the  Norwegian  side  alone  in  the 
decade  following  1850.58  Skandin&ven,  whose  foundation 
marks  an  era  in  the  Scandinavian  press,  dates  back  to  this 
period.  From  its  small  beginnings  has  grown  a  great 
metropolitan  daily,  with  a  circulation  of  20,000,  besides  its 
semi-weekly  and  weekly  editions  which  have  a  circulation 
all  over  the  Northwest  of  nearly  50,000.59  In  the  ten  years 
after  1870,  a  second  expansion  in  the  number  of  publica- 
tions took  place,  tho  the  fifteen  Scandinavian  papers  given 
in  the  list  published  in  the  standard  newspaper  directory 
for  1870,  make  an  almost  insignificant  showing  by  the  side 
of  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  or  more  printed  in  America 
in  German.60 

The  Swedish  press  in  the  United  States  began  some- 
what later  than  the  Norwegian,  but  it  manifested  a  stabil- 
ity and  steadiness  of  progress  which  the  latter  too  often 
lacked.  Hemlandet  was  founded  in  1855  as  an  organ  of 
Swedish  Lutheranism,  but  in  1870  it  was  a  political  as 
well  as  a  religious  journal,  with  4,000  subscribers  to  the 

•""Langeland,  Nordmcendene  i  Ainerika,  94-107.  Langeland  succeeded 
Reymert  as  editor  of  Nordlyset.  A  few  copies  of  Nordlyset,  Demo- 
kraten, Emigranten,  and  some  fifteen  other  early  Norwegian  papers  were 
found  some  years  ago  in  the  hands  of  an  old  Norwegian,  Christopher 
Hanson  of  St.  Ansgar,  Iowa.  By  him  they  were  turned  over  to  Rasmus 
B.  Anderson,  then  editor  of  Amerika.  Amerika,  Jan.  4,  1899.  Anderson 
sold  the  collection  for  $100  to  the  United  Church  in  whose  Seminary 
Library  it  now  rests.  "Raport  fra  Komiteen  til  Indsamling  af  historiske 
Documenter,"  Beretning  out  det  syttende  Aarsmode  for  den  Forenede 
norsk  lutherke  Kirke  i  Amerika  (1906),  126-128. 

58Langeland,  Nordiiuendene  i  Ainerika,  96-112. 

•'•9"Den  skandinaviske  tidnings-pressens  barndom  i  Amerika,"  Hem- 
landet, Feb.  25,  March  4,  1913 ;  Hansen  and  Wist,  "Den  Norsk-Amerikanske 
Presse".  Norsk- Amerikanernes  Festskrift,  1914.  9-203. 

60Rowell,  American  Newspaper  Directory,  1870,  948. 


128  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [358 

weekly  edition,  and  2,000  to  the  monthly, — "the  largest 
circulation  of  any  Swedish  political  newspaper  in  this 
country."61 

The  high-water  mark  in  the  number  of  these  publica- 
tions in  the  Northern  tongues  seems  to  have  been  in  1892 
or  1893,  when  Rowell  mentions  146,  of  which  Minnesota 
is  credited  with  33,  Illinois  with  30,  Iowa  with  13,  and 
Wisconsin  with  10,  a  total  for  these  four  States  of  86,  with 
a  reported  total  of  140,000  subscribers,  out  of  550,000 
subscribers  for  all  the  Scandinavian  papers  in  the  country, 
By  1901,  the  number  of  papers  had  fallen  off — many  sus- 
pended in  the  hard  times  after  1893° - — but  the  number  of 
subscribers  increased  for  the  whole  country  to  more  than 
800,000,  and  for  the  four  States  just  enumerated,  to  more 
than  650,000.63 

The  politics  and  religion  of  the  papers  reflected  the 
variegated  opinions  of  different  parties  and  sects,  and  of 
men  who  would  found  new  parties  and  denominations,  but 
Lutheranism  and  Republicanism  have  been  from  the  start 
the  dominating  influences.  A  historian  of  Lutheranism 
named  16  Swedish  Evangelical  Lutheran  periodicals  in 
existence  in  the  United  States  in  1896.64  About  the  same 
time  a  Democratic  paper  remarks  grudgingly  and  sourly: 
"It  is  worthy  of  note  that  of  the  fifty  or  sixty  Norwegian 
papers  in  the  United  States,  including  two  dailies,  all  are 
Republican  tho  at  rare  intervals  some  may  bolt  individual 
nominations.  Generally,  however,  they  are  amazingly 
steadfast  to  party — moss-backed  and  hide-bound,  in  fact."65 

The  strong  hold  whicli  this  press  exercises  upon  its 
subscribers  is  excellently  illustrated  in  the  large  sums  of 

"Ibid.,  633. 

*2The  North,  Aug.  9,  1893,  reports  six  weeklies  "suspended  within  the 
past  few  weeks." 

68Rowell,  American  Newspaper  Directory  for  years  named;  Hein- 
landet,  Mar.  4,  1903 :  "De  svenska  tidningarne  i  Amerika  har  nu  sam- 
menlagt  en  prenumerantsiffra  som  uppgar  till  400,000." 

**Lenker,  Lutherans  in  all  Lands,  771. 

**Madison  Democrat,  Oct.  6,  1898. 


359]  KELIGIOUS  AND  INTELLECTUAL  STANDPOINT  129 

money  raised  from  time  to  time  through  its  agency  in 
behalf  of  sufferers  from  fire  and  famine  in  the  North  Euro- 
pean peninsulas.  By  editorials  and  special  correspond- 
ence, by  subscriptions  and  the  publications  of  lists  of  con- 
tributors, by  stimulating  concerts  for  raising  relief 
moneys,  these  journals  have  pursued  the  shrewd,  enter- 
prising, and,  at  the  same  time,  benevolent  schemes  of  ad- 
vertising, followed  by  their  American  contemporaries.  In 
1893  Skandinaven  received  and  remitted  to  Norway  for 
the  relief  of  sufferers  from  a  landslide  in  Thelemark  more 
than  $2,700.66  When  a  great  fire  nearly  destroyed  the  city 
of  Aalesund,  that  journal  in  the  winter  and  spring  of  1904 
gathered  and  sent  to  Norway  $19,000,  mostly  in  sums 
ranging  from  $.25  to  $2.00;  at  the  same  time  Decorah 
Posten  remitted  more  than  $12,000  for  the  same  purpose.67 
The  great  famine  in  northern  Sweden  and  Finland  in 
1902-3  gave  rise  to  a  similar  collection  of  money ;  the  editor 
of  the  Svenska,  Amerikanska  Posten,  the  powerful  Swedish 
newspaper  of  Minneapolis,  headed  the  list  for  his  paper, 
and  at  the  end  of  several  months  the  contributions  through 
this  one  journal  reached  the  total  of  approximately  $18,- 
OOO.68  Of  course  not  all  the  money  so  liberally  poured  out 
to  aid  the  unfortunate  by  the  Baltic  or  the  North  Sea,  was 
transmitted  through  the  agents  of  the  newspapers,  but  it 
is  true  that  almost  the  sole  inspiration  for  the  gifts  came 
more  or  less  directly  from  the  Scandinavian  press.  Prob- 
ably out  of  $175,000  sent  from  the  United  States  to  the 
famine  sufferers  in  1903, — and  America's  quota  was  about 
one-half  of  the  total  handled  by  the  Swedish  central  com- 
mittee in  Stockholm — the  newspapers  were  instrumental 
in  raising  fifty  per-cent.69 

MSkandinaven,  May  3,  May  31,  1893. 

"Ibid.,  Jan.  27-April  30,  1904;  Dannevirke,  March  30,  1904. 
08Svenska  Amerikanska  Posten,  Feb.  17,  June  30,  1903. 
"Hetnlandet,    Feb.    25    (quoting    from    Nya    Dagligt    Allehanda    of 
Stockholm  for  Feb.  7),  July  15,  Aug.   19,  1903. 


CHAPTER  X. 

SOCIAL  RELATIONS  AND  CHARACTERISTICS 

While  the  normal  unit  in  Scandinavian  immigration 
is  the  family,  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  immigrants 
has  consisted  of  young,  unmarried  men  and  women.  Not 
infrequently  the  young  man  left  behind  him  a  sweetheart 
who  followed  a  little  later  when  a  solid  foundation  was  laid 
for  the  prospective  family;  or  perchance,  if  sufficiently 
prosperous,  he  went  back  at  some  Christmastide  to  marry 
her  and  bring  her  to  America.  In  any  case,  the  farm  meant 
a  home,  and  the  marriage  back  of  it  was  generally  between 
two  of  the  same  nationality.  Still,  intermarriages  between 
Scandinavians  and  persons  of  American  or  of  other  alien 
stock,  are  not  infrequent,  tho  the  number  and  signifi- 
cance of  such  marriages  is  more  a  matter  of  personal 
opinion  and  estimate  than  of  exact  statistics,  since  the 
latter  are  lacking.  The  opinions  expressed  in  this  chapter 
are  based  upon  the  inconclusive  figures  of  the  census 
reports,  upon  a  study  of  a  large  number  of  brief 
biographies,  and  upon  a  considerable  acquaintance  with 
conditions  in  the  Northwest.  The  biographies,  it  should 
be  noted,  are  almost  exclusively  of  men  of  Scandinavian 
birth,  whose  intermarriage  with  American  women  is  less 
common  than  that  of  American  men  with  Scandinavian 


wromen. 


Before  the  flood  tide  of  immigration  in  the  period 
beginning  about  1880  brought  to  America  so  many  young, 
unmarried  women,  intermarriages  were  more  infrequent 
than  in  the  later  time.  Hence  the  discussion  of  the  matter 
in  the  Census  Report  of  1880  would  not  necessarily  hold 
true  for  the  subsequent  period:  "There  is  but  one  ira- 

^remer,  Homes  of  the  New  World,  II,  222,  227,  236;  Nelson,  His- 
tory of  the  Scandinavians,  I,  372,  380,  384,  404,  423,  4^9,  438,  504,  530. 

130 


361]  SOCIAL  RELATIONS  AND  CHARACTERISTICS  131 

portant  element  (other  than  the  Irish)  which  manifests 
an  equally  strong  indisposition  to  intermarriage,  viz.,  the 
Scandinavian.  This  element  appears  in  an  important 
degree  in  but  few  of  the  States  and  Territories  embraced 
in  the  following  tables,  but  in  these  the  effects  of  inter- 
marriage are  slight.  Thus  in  Wisconsin,  while  there  are 
42,728  persons  born  on  our  soil  having  both  Scandinavian 
father  and  Scandinavian  mother,  there  are  but  2,083  per- 
sons having  a  Scandinavian  father  and  an  American 
mother.  In  Dakota,  the  respective  numbers  are  10,071 
and  418;  in  Minnesota  69,492  and  1,906.  ...  It  will  be 
noted  that  in  some  of  the  States  and  Territories  where  the 
Scandinavians  are  few  and  where  it  is  notorious  that  they 
are  thoroly  mingled  with  the  general  population,  the  pro- 
portion of  intermarriages  is  not  a  low  one."2  The  figures 
for  the  children  of  such  mixed  marriages  given  in  the 
reports  of  the  Twelfth  Census  certainly  reveal  a  decided 
increase  in  the  number,  especially  when  the  necessary 
allowance  is  made  for  the  decreasing  birthrate  naturally 
incident  to  the  development  of  urban  communities  and  to 
filling  up  of  States,  which  took  place  between  1880  and 
1900.3 

In  these  two  decades,  larg^.  numbers  of  young  un- 
married women,  moved  by  the  same  economic  motives  as 
the  young  men,  came  to  the  United  States  and  took  ser- 
vice among  the  Americans  as  domestic  servants.  The  de- 
mand for  capable  and  well-trained  servants  far  exceeded, 
and  still  exceeds,  the  visible  supply,  and  the  wages  which 
seemed  high  to  the  American  housewife  seemed  trebly  high 
to  the  girl  who  received  in  cash  wages  in  the  old  home 
only  $20  or  $30  per  year.4  In  the  new  service  the  girls 
must  perforce  learn  English  rapidly  or  fail,  so  they  learned 
the  language  and  also  the  ways  of  the  American  house- 
hold. In  return  they  gave  an  honest,  good-tempered,  and 

-V.  S.  Tenth  Census,  1880,  I,  6/6. 

*U.  S.  Twelfth  Census  Reports,  /poo,  I,  Population,  Pi.  i,  CXCIII, 
and  Tables  43,  46,  56. 

*U.  S.  Consular  Reports  (1887)  No.  76,  148;  Young.  Labor  in  Europe 
and  America,  681. 


Kll'  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [362 

trustworthy  if  sometimes  clumsy  service.  If  they  were 
not  always  evidently  grateful  for  the  instruction  and 
patience  of  the  mistress  of  the  household,  if  frequently 
they  married  soon  after  they  were  trained  into  efficient 
and  satisfactory  servants,  they  should  not  be  condemned 
wholesale!  While  the  marriages  of  these  strong,  healthy, 
intelligent,  domestically  capable  young  women  with  non- 
Scandinavian  young  men  of  the  middle  and  lower  classes 
constitute  the  larger  proportion  of  intermarriages,  the 
intermarriage  of  the  American-born  Scandinavian  girls, 
trained  in  the  public  schools  and  colleges,  with  American 
men  is  also  frequent,  and  no  reservation  as  to  the  mixture 
of  social  classes  needs  to  be  made. 

Large  families  have  been  a  proinient  characteristic  of 
the  home  life  of  the  Northmen  in  America's  Northwest. 
Race  suicide  should  not  be  charged  against  the  Scandina- 
vians either  in  their  new  homes  or  in  their  old,  for  in 
spite  of  the  steady  drain  which  emigration  has  made  upon 
the  population  of  Sweden,  Norway,  and  Denmark  for  fifty 
years,  each  country  in  each  decade  has  shown  an  increase 
of  population,  due  solely  to  natural  increase.5  In  America 
this  natural  fecundity  was  re-enforced  by  the  conditions 
under  which  settlement  was  made,  for  large  families  are 
characteristic  of  the  early  years  of  a  developing  agricul- 
tural frontier.  So  when  the  Scandinavians  entered  the 
newly-opened  regions  of  the  Great  West  and  found  land 
and  food  abundant,  both  immediately  and  prospectively, 
they  felt  no  necessity  for  enforcing  prudential  or  other 
checks  upon  the  increase  of  population.  Putting  the  case 
more  positively,  circumstances  put  a  premium  upon  fami- 
lies with  numerous  children;  the  farmer  welcomed  addi- 
tions to  his  circle  of  boys  and  girls  who  would  grow  up 
into  helpers  upon  the  expanding  cultivated  acreage  of  the 
farm,  and  later  take  up  land  near  the  original  homestead, 
buttressing  it  with  prosperous  allied  homes.  Families  of 
ten  and  twelve  were  common,  while  others  reached  sixteen, 

^Special  Reports,  Bureau  of  the  Census,  "Supplementary  Analysis  and 
Derivative  Tables"  (1906),  32-33. 


363]  SOCIAL  RELATIONS  AND  CHARACTERISTICS  133 

eighteen,  and  even  twenty-four.6  In  his  remarkably  de- 
tailed reminiscences  of  Norwegian  settlers  in  Wisconsin 
and  the  further  Northwest,  the  Eev.  J.  A.  Ottesen  refers 
to  families  of  his  friends  and  acquaintances,  sometimes  in 
exact  figures,  as  seven,  ten,  or  fourteen  children,  and 
sometimes  in  such  general  phrases  as  "many  children,"  or 
"several  children,"  making  use  of  these  phrases  no  less 
than  seventeen  times  in  three  columns  of  a  single  article.7 

An  examination  of  several  thousand  biographical 
sketches  of  Danes,  Norwegians,  and  Swedes  who  have  at- 
tained some  degree  of  success  in  the  American  West,  the 
very  class  which  would  first  begin  to  limit  the  size  of  the 
family,  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  the  average  number 
of  children  per  family  among  them  is  between  four  and 
five.  In  other  words  the  average  is  nearly  double  that  of 
the  United  States  taken  as  a  whole.8 

Closely  connected  with  this  immigration  of  so  many 
young,  unmarried  girls  of  the  servant  class,  is  the  question 
of  sex  morality  and  illegitimacy.  The  statistics  relating 
to  this  question  are  particularly  unsatisfactory  so  far  as 
the  United  States  is  concerned,  even  for  a  land  where  the 
scientific  statistician  is  a  recent  product,  and  where  the 
collection  of  social  statistics,  left  mainly  to  the  States  and 
to  local  authorities,  is  very  loosely  carried  on.  The  mo- 
tives for  concealment  and  for  prevarication  are  obvious, 
and  the  records  of  municipal  courts,  even  if  closely  in- 
spected, would  not  give  much  more  than  a  scant  minimum 
of  information  applicable  to  an  estimate  of  the  Scandina- 
vian element  in  the  population. 

'Sparks,  History  of  Winneshiek  County,  Iowa,  no;  History  of  Fill- 
more  County  (Minnesota),  377  ff.,  434  ff. 

7J.  O.  Ottesen,  "Bidrag  til  vore  Settlementers  og  Menigheders  His- 
toric," Amerika,  April-September,  1894,  especially  July  4. 

8These  biographies  are  numerous  in  the  many  county  histories  which 
appeared  between  1880  and  1890  as  the  work  of  a  syndicate  of  publishers ; 
they  are  also  the  staple  of  the  latter  half  of  such  works  as  Johnson  and 
Peterson,  Svenskarne  i  Illinois,  and  Nelson,  History  of  the  Scandinavians, 
I,  and  II.  All  the  Scandinavian  newspapers  print  many  similar  sketches, 
biographical,  autobiographical,  and  obituary. 


134  THE  SCANDINAVIAN    KI.KMKNT  [304 

To  judge  from  the  figures  given  for  certain  cities  in 
Norway  and  Sweden,  it  would  be  natural  to  expect  a  much 
higher  percentage  of  illegitimate  births  among  the  immi- 
grants from  those  countries  than  among  persons  of  Ameri- 
can ancestry.  The  United  States  Consul  at  Stockholm 
reported  for  1884  for  the  whole  of  Sweden  that  10.2%  of 
all  births  were  illegitimate;  for  the  city  of  Stockholm 
alone,  29.3%.°  Twelve  years  later  the  figure  for  the 
whole  kingdom  was  11  %.10  For  Norway,  the  figure  for 
the  kingdom  was  7.2%  for  1896 ;  in  the  city  of  Christiania, 
15.4%  of  the  5,349  births  in  1895  were  illegitimate.11 

Such  statistics  are  certainly  ominous,  whatever  the 
allowance  which  should  be  made  for  peculiar  social  condi- 
tions in  Europe,  which  make  the  begetting  of  children 
after  betrothal  and  before  actual  wedlock  a  less  heinous 
offence  against  good  order  and  morality  than  in  America. 
But  over  against  these  startling  figures  stands  the  fact 
that  it  does  not  seem  to  be  harder  to  maintain  order  and 
decency  in  cities  like  Minneapolis  and  St.  Paul,  or  in  the 
Scandinavian  wards  of  Chicago,  than  it  is  in  Detroit  or 
Boston,  or  in  the  other  alien  quarters  of  Chicago  itself. 
Nor  does  an  inspection  of  the  court  and  police  records  of 
cities  of  the  Northwest  for  crimes  and  offences  against 
decency,  or  against  women,  give  cause  for  any  special 
alarm  for  the  future  morality  of  the  Scandinavians  of 
that  section. 

For  a  safe  and  conclusive  estimate  of  the  contribu- 
tions made  by  the  Scandinavian  element  to  the  delinquent 
and  defective  classes  of  society,  no  very  complete  or  satis- 
factory data  are  at  present  to  be  had.  A  detailed  study 
of  the  statistics  of  these  classes  in  Wisconsin  and  Minne- 
sota warrants  the  judgment  that  the  immigrants  from 
Northern  Europe,  and  their  immediate  descendants,  have 

9U.  S.  Consular  Reports  (1887),  No.  76,  151;  Young,  Labor  in  Eu- 
rope, 689.  C.  C.  Andrews,  U.  S.  Minister  to  Sweden,  1873,  states :  "The 
proportion  of  illegitimate  births,  including  the  whole  kingdom  was  5.85%, 
but  including  only  cities,  the  proportion  of  illegitimates  was  14.32%." 

^Statesman's   Year  Book,   1900,   1048. 

"Ibid.,  1062;  Folkebladet,  Feb.  5,  1806. 


365]  SOCIAL  RELATIONS  AND  CHARACTERISTICS  135 

a  much  smaller  percentage  of  paupers  and  criminals  and 
a  much  larger  percentage  of  insane,  than  do  either  the 
Germans  or  the  Irish,  the  two  other  alien  elements  which 
approach  the  Scandinavians  in  importance  in  those 
States.1-  But  these  statistics  are  at  best  unconvincing, 
because  they  are  acknowledgedly  incomplete,  and  because 
in  them  little  attempt  is  made  to  distinguish  between  the 
children  of  American  descent  and  those  born  of  immigrant 
parents  in  America. 

The  experts  working  out  the  interpretation  of  the 
results  of  the  Twelfth  Census  (1900)  have  made  distinct 
progress  towards  a  fair  comparative  judgment  in  matters 
relating  to  social  classes  and  conditions.    John  Koren,  for 
example,  the  son  of  the  veteran  Norwegian  Lutheran  pas- 
tor, the  Rev.  V.  Koren,  and  an  investigator  and  writer  of 
unusual  weight,  points  out  that  the  insane  in  hospitals 
are  at  least  ten  years  of  age,  while  there  are  few  children 
under  fifteen  among  the  immigrants  as  compared  with  the 
number  under  that  age  among  the  native  whites,  and  he 
accordingly    concludes   that    "Of   the  whites  at  least   10 
years  of  age  in  the  general  population  of  the  United  States 
in  1900,  80.5%  were  native  and  19.5%  were  foreign-born; 
while  of  the  white  insane  of  known  nativity  enumerated 
in  hospitals  on  December  31,  1903,  65.7%  were  native  and 
34.3%  were  foreign-born.    Relatively,  therefore,  the  insane 
are  more  numerous  among  the  foreign  born  whites  than 
among  the  native."13    How  much  more  convincing  is  such 
a  cautious  and  careful  estimate  than  the  sweeping  generali- 
zations of  another  recent  writer :    "Roughly  speaking,  the 
foreigners  furnish  more  than  twice  as  many  criminals,  two 
and  one-third  times  as  many  insane,  and  three  times  as 
many  paupers  as  the  native  element."14 

12A  discussion  of  these  statistics  for  1885-1890  is  given  in  The  Forum, 
XIV,  103.  The  reports  of  the  superintendents  of  some  of  the  institu- 
tions give  more  or  less  of  the  history  of  each  case.  See  Nelson,  History 
of  the  Scandinavians,  II,  1-23. 

13Special  Reports,  Bureau  of  the  Census,  1904,  "Insane  and  Feeble- 
minded in  Hospitals  and  Institutions,"  20. 

14Hall,  Immigration,  166. 


136  THE  SCANDINAVIAN   ELEMENT  [366 

The  statistics  for  the  insane  in  hospitals  at  the  end 
of  1903  and  of  those  admitted  during  1904,  as  given  by 
Mr.  Koren,  show  a  strikingly  high  percentage  of  insane 
persons  of  foreign  parentage  in  Wisconsin,  Minnesota, 
North  Dakota,  and  Iowa.  No  other  State  comes  within 
ten  per-cent  of  the  ratio  of  the  first  three.  Of  those  enu- 
merated in  December,  1903,  56%  in  Wisconsin,  48%  in 
Minnesota,  52%  in  North  Dakota,  and  34%  in  Iowa,  were 
of  foreign  parentage;  the  percentages  of  the  admissions 
for  1904  were  53%  in  Wisconsin,  55%  in  Minnesota,  and 
33%  in  Iowa.15  In  all  these  States  the  Scandinavian  ele- 
ment has  been  numerous  for  at  least  two  generations. 
Figures  gathered  for  this  study  for  the  period  between 
1885  and  1895,  before  the  children  of  the  Scandinavian 
immigrants  reached  in  very  considerable  numbers  what 
might  be  termed  the  age  for  acquiring  insanity,  gave  simi- 
larly significant  conclusions.  Of  the  inmates  of  the  state 
hospitals  for  the  insane  in  Minnesota,  the  foreign-born 
Scandinavians  Avere  28%  in  1886  and  30.7%  in  1890;  of 
the  admissions  to  the  state  hospital  at  St.  Peter  in  1890, 
35%  were  Norse.  Of  the  total  admissions  for  the  State  in 
1900,  23%  were  Scandinavians,  while  in  the  Fergus  Falls 
hospital,  located  in  the  heart  of  a  more  recently  settled 
Scandinavian  area,  40%  were  of  that  nationality;  Wiscon- 
sin reports  show  like  percentages.16  All  of  these  statistics 
warrant  the  general  conclusion  that  of  all  the  foreign- 
born,  the  Scandinavians  are  the  most  prone  to  insanity.17 

"Special  Reports,  Bureau  of  the  Census,  "Insane  and  Feebleminded," 
21. 

^Minnesota  Executive  Documents,  1900 — statistics  for  the  insane  for 
1890,  1896,  and  1900;  The  North,  Dec.  18,  1889;  Wisconsin  State  Board  of 
Control  [biennial],  1890  to  1902. 

^Special  Reports,  Bureau  of  the  Census,  1904,  "Insane,  etc.,  in  Hos- 
pitals," 21.  Nelson,  History  of  the  Scandinavians,  II,  ch.  i,  makes  a  con- 
scientious, but  rather  lame,  attempt  at  analyzing  available  statistics  of 
insanity,  and  gives  his  conclusions  for  two  periods,  1881-2  and  1890-4: 
ratio  of  insane  in  total  population,  1:2718  and  1:1719;  in  American-born, 
1:4120  and  1:3009;  in  foreign-born  1:1480  and  1:1144;  in  Irish,  i  :io6i 
and  1:769;  in  German,  1:1461  and  1:1439,  »n  Scandinamian,  1:1588  and 
i  :8i9. 


367]  SOCIAL  RELATIONS  AND  CHARACTERISTICS  137 

If  one  seeks  for  adequate  reasons  for  this  unusual/ 
tendency  to  insanity,  he  will  not  find  ready  satisfaction. 
Undoubtedly  the  difference  of  environment  and  the  severer 
strain  upon  muscle  and  nerve  imposed  by  American  indus- 
trial conditions,  by  which  the  machinery  of  the  individual 
must  run  at  a  higher  and  unwonted  speed,  will  account 
for  part  of  the  phenomena,  but  these  causes  operate  alike 
upon  all  classes  of  immigrants.  The  change  from  the 
mountains  of  Norway,  or  from  the  rugged  sea-coast  of  the 
great  Northern  peninsula,  to  the  rolling  prairies  and  the 
vast  silent  plains  of  the  interior  of  the  United  States,  has 
also  its  depressing  effect.  The  very  flatness  of  the  land, 
its  extremes  of  temperature,  the  fierce  tornadoes  of  wind, 
the  bewildering,  imprisoning  storms  of  snow,  with  no 
friendly  mountain  or  forest  to  offer  a  body  of  protection 
or  a  face  of  comfort,  and  the  isolation  of  the  life  of  the 
frontier  farmer  and  his  family,  together  with  the  severity 
of  their  labor — all  these  are  causes  operating  with  peculiar 
force  in  the  case  of  the  Norwegian  and  Swedish  immi--^ 
grants.  Dr.  Gronvald,  writing  in  1887,  stated  his  convic-  / 
tion  that  the  women  of  these  classes,  especially  the  Nor- 
wegians, were  predisposed  to  nervous  disorders  and  insan- 
ity by  early  and  frequent  child-bearing,  and  from  early 
rising  from  child-bed.18 

Since  the  Norse  immigrants  have  rarely  if  ever  been 
charged  with  illiteracy,  dependency,  pauperism  or  mendi- 
cancy, the  remaining  social  test,  usually  considered  co- 
ordinate with  that  for  insanity,  is  the  proportion  of  crim- 
inals contributed  to  the  total  of  delinquents.19  Earlier 
computations  must  undergo  the  same  severe  correction  as 
do  the  estimates  regarding  the  insane.  By  1885  there  were 

18Gronvald,  "The  Effects  of  the  Immigration  on  the  Norwegian  Immi- 
grants," Sixth  Annual  Report  of  the  State  Board  of  Health  of  Minne- 
sota, 520. 

19For  an  interesting  background  for  this  discussion,  see  Grellet, 
Memoirs,  I,  324.  He  wrote  in  1818  of  a  parish  named  Stavanger,  having 
a  population  of  some  7,000 :  "We  visited  their  prison  and  their  schools ; 
the  former  kept  by  an  old  woman.  She  had  but  one  prisoner  in  it,  and  had 
so  much  confidence  in  him  that  the  door  of  his  cell  was  kept  open." 


138  THE  SCANDINAVIAN   ELKMKNT  [368 

in  the  Northwest  large  communities  made  up  of  the  older 
Norwegian  and  Swedish  settlers  and  their  descendants, 
and  other  communities  comprising  great  numbers  of  re- 
cently arrived  immigrants.  According  to  the  State  census 
of  1885  in  Minnesota,  the  Scandinavians  formed  16.5%  of 
the  population,  and  the  Germans,  11.5%.  The  reports  of 
the  wardens  of  the  State's  prisons  for  1886  show  8.7%  of 
the  prisoners  to  be  Scandinavian,  and  7.4%  German.  The 
population  of  the  State  during  the  next  five  years  grew 
rapidly;  the  Scandinavian  element  increased  faster  than 
the  German  and  nearly  twice  as  fast  as  the  native  Ameri- 
can. Yet  in  1890  the  percentage  of  the  prisoners  who 
could  be  identified  as  Scandinavian  was  only  7.1%. 20 

In  Wisconsin,  where  the  increase  of  population  in  the 
last  ten  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  in  the  native- 
born  of  Scandinavian  parentage,  rather  than  in  the  num- 
ber of  immigrants,  the  reports  of  the  Waupun  State 
Prison  may  be  supplemented  by  those  of  the  State  Indus- 
trial School,  the  reformatory  for  first  offenders  between 
the  ages  of  fifteen  and  thirty.  In  1900,  the  foreign-born 
Scandinavian  population  of  Wisconsin  was  5%  of  the 
total,  and  the  Scandinavian  population  of  foreign-born 
parentage  was  10%  of  the  total.21  Of  the  prisoners  re- 
ceived at  Waupun,  the  Scandinavians  were:  1891,  4.1%; 
1898,  4.4%  ;  1900,  3.7%.  Of  boys  and  young  men  received 
at  the  Industrial  School,  those  of  Scandinavian  parentage 
were :  1890-1892,  7%  ;  1896-1898,  6.5%  ;  1900-1902,  6.6%.22 

In  the  matter  of  petty  offences  which  are  usually  tried 
in  the  police  courts,  particularly  cases  arising  out  of 
intemperance,  the  records  of  convictions  in  Minneapolis, 
St.  Paul,  and  Chicago,  together  with  the  statistics  of  city 

20Minnesota  Executive  Documents,  biennial  reports  of  State  Prisons 
for  the  'years  mentioned. 

21 U.  S.  Twelfth  Census,  I,  Population,  Pt.  I,  Tables  25,  38,  40. 

22Reports  of  the  Wisconsin  State  Board  of  Control  for  the  years 
mentioned. 


369]  SOCIAL  RELATIONS  AND  CHARACTERISTICS  139 

prisons  and  workhouses,  indicate  that  the  Northmen  are 
clearly  the  chief  offenders.23 

23Minnesota  Executive  Documents,  Reports  of  the  State  Board  of 
Charities  and  Corrections,  especially  for  1884,  1890,  1896;  The  North, 
Dec.  18,  1889.  Nelson,  History  of  the  Scandinavians,  II,  ch.  i,  tabulates 
his  estimates  of  criminality  as  he  does  those  of  insanity;  for  the  years  1880- 
1882  and  1892-1894 : 

Ratio  of  criminals  in  the  whole  population.. 1 :23O2        i  :i999 

American-born  population 1 12413        i  :2oi3 

Foreign-born   population 1 12035        1 11887 

Irish  population  „ I  :i6oo        i  :86b 

German  population  1 12713        i  :27i5 

Scandinavian  population i  :37o6        i  :5933 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE  SCANDINAVIAN  IN  LOCAL  AND  STATE  POLITICS 

The  Scandinavian  usually  entered  the  field  of  politics 
rather  slowly;  he  took  out  his  "first  papers"  for  the  pur- 
pose of  acquiring  land,  not  that  he  might  vote  in  the  next 
election.  In  the  early  years  of  his  settlement  he  was  too 
busy  building  and  paying  for  a  home,  learning  English, 
and  adopting  American  customs,  to  give  much  time  or 
attention  to  public  affairs.  The  clearing  of  woodland,  the 
breaking  up  of  the  prairie,  and  the  transformation  of  a 
one-room  shack  into  a  frame  dwelling  required  severe  labor 
and  all  his  energies.  Not  until  the  leisure  of  some  degree 
of  success  was  his,  did  he  yield  to  his  natural  inclination 
for  politics  of  the  larger  sort. 

The  Norwegian,  of  all  the  men  of  the  Northern  lands, 
has  the  strongest  liking  for  the  political  arena,  and  has 
had  the  most  thoro  political  training  at  home.  Since  1814 
he  has  lived  and  acted  in  a  community  markedly  demo- 
cratic. He  understands  the  meaning  of  the  Fourth  of 
July  all  the  better  because  he,  and  his  ancestors  for  two 
or  three  generations  in  their  home  by  the  North  Sea,  cele- 
brated on  the  Seventeenth  of  May  the  independence  of 
Norway  and  the  advent  of  republicanism.  His  sense  of 
individuality  and  equality  is  stronger  than  that  of  his 
cousins  to  the  east  or  south,  and  he  steadily  and  stubbornly 
fights  for  the  recognition  and  maintenance  of  his  rights. 
In  1821,  before  the  first  real  immigrants  sailed  for  the 
United  States,  Norway  abolished  nobility,  while  Sweden 
and  Denmark  still  retain  the  institution.  Equipped  thus, 
and  educated  in  such  a  vigorous  school,  it  is  the  Norwe- 
gian rather  than  the  Swede  or  Dane  who  figures  most 
largely  in  the  political  activities  of  the  American  North- 
west. 

140 


371]         SCANDINAVIAN  IN  LOCAL  AND  STATE  POLITICS  141 

Several  causes  operating  on  the  western  side  of  the 
Atlantic  augmented  these  natural  advantages  of  the  Nor- 
wegians. In  their  settlements  they  had  ten  or  fifteen 
years  the  start  of  the  Swedes,  and  in  the  formative  period 
of  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  Minnesota,  and  Dakota  they  greatly 
outnumbered  both  the  Swedes  and  Danes.  They  went 
into  new  States  and  territories,  and,  settling  on  farms, 
profited  by  the  power  which  the  rural  portion  of  a  develop- 
ing region  usually  exercises  in  politics.  On  the  other 
hand,  tho  the  Swedes  in  Illinois  since  the  early  fifties, 
and  in  Kansas  since  the  late  sixties,  have  formed  decid- 
edly the  larger  part  of  the  Scandinavian  population  of 
those  two  States,  they  have  by  no  means  taken  a  part  in 
politics  equal  to  that  taken  by  the  Norwegians.  In  1890 
the  foreign-born  Swedes  in  Iowa  were  more  numerous 
than  the  foreign-born  Norwegians,  and  in  Minnesota  about 
equal  in  number,  but  these  figures  do  not  fairly  represent 
the  political  strength  of  the  two  elements,  for  to  the  for- 
eign-born Norwegians  must  be  added  those  of  the  second 
and  third  generation  of  persons  of  purely  Norwegian  ex- 
traction.1 The  sons,  and  even  the  grandsons  of  the  early 
Norwegian  settlers  were  voters  before  the  Swedish  immi- 
gration greatly  exceeded  the  Norwegian.2  Broadly  speak- 
ing, the  early  political  pre-eminence  of  the  Norwegians 
has  never  been  overcome. 

For  the  common  people  of  Sweden  and  Denmark, 
political  experience  practically  began  with  the  agitation 
for  the  reforms  of  1866  and  1867.  The  peasants  and 
burghers  thus  came  to  think  definitely  and  decisively 
about  what  they  desired  and  of  the  means  for  securing  the 

1  Statistics  for  foreign-born  in  1890: 

Iowa        Minnesota 

Norwegians    27,078          101,169 

Swedes  „ 30,276  99,913 

Danes  - 15,519  14,133 

2In  1850  the  total  of  foreign-born  Scandinavians  was  12,678,  of  whom 
3.559  were  Swedes.  In  1860  the  corresponding  figures  were  43,995  and 
18,625.  In  1880  the  Swedes  numbered  194,337,  and  the  Norwegians, 
181,729.  United  States  Census  Reports  for  the  years  1850,  1860,  1880. 


142  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [372 

wished-for  reforms.  It  may  therefore  be  asserted  without 
reservation  that  after  1870  the  average  Scandinavian  im- 
migrant brought  to  America  a  fairly  clear  understanding 
of  the  meaning  of  republicanism;  elections,  representa- 
tion, local  self-government,  and  constitutions,  are  neither 
novel  nor  meaningless  terms  to  him ;  he  is  ready  to  fill  his 
place,  play  his  part,  and  cast  his  vote,  as  "a  citizen  of  no 
mean  city."  In  the  discharge  of  their  civic  duties,  the 
Scandinavian  voters  have  had  the  aid  of  several  unusually 
well  edited  newspapers  in  their  own  languages.  Since 
active  participation  in  politics  and  patriotism  are  not 
always  synonymous,  one  branch  of  the  Scandinavian  peo- 
ples may  be  just  as  patriotic  as  another.  Certain  it  is 
that  in  the  Civil  War  the  Swedes  were  every  whit  as 
prompt  and  hearty  in  their  response  to  calls  for  men,  and 
as  thoro  in  their  efficiency  and  courage  as  soldiers,  as 
were  the  Norwegians. 

From  a  political  view-point,  the  importance  of  the 
Norse  immigrants  in  the  agricultural  regions  of  the  West 
has  not  been  fully  recognized.  At  first  thought,  it  would 
seem  that  location  in  a  city  or  town,  with  its  intimate 
associations  and  sharper  competitions,  with  its  friction  of 
frequent  contact  with  Americans,  should  be  more  condu- 
cive to  rapid  Americanization  of  immigrants,  than  the 
life  of  the  farm  or  of  the  rural  village,  with  its  isolation 
and  narrow  horizon.  More  careful  consideration  will  make 
clear  that  the  opportunities  for  political  action  beyond 
merely  casting  a  vote,  are  really  much  better  in  a  new, 
thinly-settled  township  than  in  a  ward  of  a  large  town  or 
city.  It  surely  wras  not  a  hunger  for  the  sweets  of  political 
influence  or  official  place  which  led  the  Scandinavians  into 
frontier  regions;  but  once  there,  with  th§  old  political  ties 
forever  severed  by  taking  out  their  "first  papers,"  with 
partial  title  to  land  entered  by  preemption  or  by  home- 
steading,  their  first  and  greatest  steps  in  Americanization 
were  safely  made,  and  each  one  carried  certain  political 
consequences.  Local  political  organization  had  to  be  ef- 
fected somehow  as  a  given  locality  filled  up,  and  it  hap- 


373]         SCANDINAVIAN  IN  LOCAL  AND  STATE  POLITICS  143 

pened  frequently  that  there  were  none  but  Scandinavians 
to  undertake  the  task.  No  matter  what  their  political 
inclinations,  no  matter  what  form  of  organization  they 
would  have  preferred,  only  one  course  was  open  to  them: 
to  get  information  as  to  the  laws  and  customs  of  the 
United  States  and  of  the  States  in  which  they  were  set- 
tled, to  prepare  for  the  elections,  and  to  assume  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  the  necessary  offices.  Over  and  over 
again  these  things  were  done  promptly  and  well  by  men 
in  whose  veins  coursed  only  Viking  blood,  by  men  but 
recently  transplanted  from  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Den- 
mark. 

Whenever  a  township  became  populous  enough  to 
have  a  name  as  well  as  a  number  on  the  surveyor's  map, 
that  question  was  likely  to  be  determined  by  the  people 
on  the  ground,  and  such  names  as  Christiana,  Swede  Plain, 
Numedal,  Throndhjem,  and  Vasa  leave  no  doubt  that 
Scandinavians  officiated  at  the  christening.3  Besides  the 
names  of  townships,  Minnesota  alone  has  no  fewer  than 
seventy-five  postoffices  whose  names  are  unmistakably 
Norse, — Malmo,  Ringbo,  Ibsen,  Tordenskjold,  and  the  like. 
It  was  in  organizing  these  new  townships,  working  the 
town  machinery,  carrying  on  elections,  levying  and  col- 
lecting taxes,  and  laying  out  roads,  that  the  Scandinavian 
immigrants  learned  the  rudiments  of  American  politics.4 
In  studying  the  accounts  of  the  formation  of  scores  of 
towns  inhabited  wholly  or  in  major  part  by  Norwegians 
or  Swedes — accounts  usually  written  by  Americans,  and 
often  going  into  minute  details — not  one  was  found  which 
describes  any  noteworthy  irregularity.  Except  for  the 
peculiar  names  no  one  would  suspect  that  the  townmakers 
were  born  elsewhere  than  in  Massachusetts  or  New  York. 

In  some  cases  probably  more  than  one-fifth  of  the 

3Christiana  got  its  name  through  the  carelessness  of  Gunnul  Vindaeg, 
who  desired  to  name  the  town  after  the  Norwegian  capital,  but  omitted 
the  "i"  in  the  last  syllable.  Billed  Magazin,  I,  388. 

4Mattson,  Story  of  an  Emigrant,  50-51 ;  History  of  Goodhue  County, 
Minnesota,  248. 


144  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [374 

men  of  the  community  shared  in  the  actual  administration 
of  town  affairs;  and  while  this  ratio  decreased  with  the 
growth  of  the  town,  the  tendency  of  the  Scandinavian  set- 
tlers to  move  on  from  one  new  region  to  another  gave 
many  of  them  continuing  opportunities  to  gain  political 
experience.  Had  the  same  number  of  men  located  in  the 
larger  towns  or  cities,  their  active  duties  as  citizens  would 
generally  have  ended  with  the  casting  of  their  annual  bal- 
lot. A  few  might  have  become  policemen,  commissioners, 
or  even  aldermen,  but  they  would  have  made  an  insignifi- 
cant percentage;  the  management  or  mismanagement  of 
finances,  schools,  streets,  sanitation,  and  public  services 
would  go  on  without  their  efforts  or  participation. 

A  few  illustrations  selected  almost  at  random,  will 
give  a  concrete  idea  of  the  process  just  described.  Two 
townships  in  Fillmore  County,  Minnesota,  were  organized 
in  1860,  and  received  the  familiar  Old  World  names,  Nor- 
way and  Arendahl;  at  the  first  election,  all  the  officers 
chosen  in  both  townships  were  Norwegians,  and  for 
twenty  years  and  more,  the  Norwegians  continued  to  fill 
nearly  all  the  offices.5  Another  and  later  example  is 
found  in  Nicollet  County,  Minnesota,  farther  west  than 
Fillmore  County,  where  the  township  of  New  Sweden  was 
formed  in  1864.  Thirty  votes  were  cast  at  the  first  elec- 
tion, and  at  the  first  town-meeting,  held  three  months 
later,  all  the  offices  were  filled  by  the  election  of  six 
Swedes  and  four  Norwegians.6  Five  years  later  this 
township  was  divided  and  the  name  Bernadotte  was  given 
to  the  new  township;  by  the  first  election,  all  ten  offices 
were  filled  by  Swedes.7  Other  Minnesota  towns,  Johnson- 
ville  in  Redwood  County  (1879),  Wang  in  Eenville  County 
(1875),  and  Stockholm  in  Wright  County  (1868),  were 
similarly  organized  and  officered  by  Norwegians  and 
Swedes.8 

^History  of  Fillmore  County,  Minnesota,  346,378. 

^History  of  the  Minnesota  Valley,  688,  690,  693. 

•*Ibid.,  688. 

*Ibid.,  790 ;  837 ;  History  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  Valley,  572. 


375]        SCANDINAVIAN  IN  LOCAL  AND  STATE  POLITICS          145 

As  the  townships  developed,  and  the  villages  grew 
into  cities  with  large  foreign-born  elements,  the  familiar 
and  characteristic  Northern  names  continue  to  fill  the 
official  records.  Stoughton,  Wisconsin,  the  capital,  so  to 
speak,  of  the  solid  old  Dane  County  settlement,  is  a  case 
in  point.  So  late  as  1901  the  roster  of  the  city  ran  as 
follows : 

Mayor,  O.  K.  Roe,  born  in  Dane  County  of  Norwegian 

parents 
President  of  the  Council,  J.  S.  Liebe,  born  in  Laurvik, 

Norway 

Aldermen,  four  born  in  different  parts  of  Norway,  two 
born  in  Dane  County  of  Norwegian  parents.9 

Much  of  the  business  in  these  new  communities  in 
their  first  years  was  carried  on  in  a  foreign  tongue.  Cer- 
tainly election  notices  and  documents  of  that  sort  were 
issued  in  Norwegian  or  Swedish,  and  sometimes  orders, 
ordinances,  and  laws.  No  evidence,  however,  has  come  to 
hand  to  prove  that  any  official  records  were  ever  kept  in 
any  other  language  than  English,  even  in  villages  com- 
posed almost  exclusively  of  Norwegians  or  Swedes.10 

One  of  the  first  offices  that  had  to  be  filled  in  the 
growing  settlement  was  that  of  postmaster;  for  no  con- 
siderable number  of  people,  educated  and  intelligent,  will 
long  be  content  with  a  postoffice  twenty  miles  away.11  In 
1856  there  were  five  Scandinavian  postmasters  in  Minne- 
sota alone.12  Thus  the  immigrant  settlers  came  in  contact 
with  the  national  government  at  the  postoffice  more  di- 
rectly and  frequently  than  they  did  at  the  land-office. 

Township  affairs  shade  off  almost  imperceptibly  into 

gAmerika,  May  20,  1901. 

10"The  Norwegians  of  Wisconsin",  Phillips  Times  (Wis.),  April  22, 

1905- 

"The  nearest  postoffice  to  the  early  settlers  in  Fillmore  County, 
Minnesota,  was  twenty  miles  away  at  Decorah,  Iowa.  History  of  Fill- 
more  County,  Minnesota  429. 

"From  the  list  transcribed  from  the  books  of  the  Appointment 
Office  of  the  Post  Office  Department,  Dec.,  1856.  Andrews,  Minnesota  and 
Dakota,  191. 


146  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [376 

county  affairs  in  the  western  States,  and  the  Scandina- 
vians soon  began  to  take  part  in  the  latter.  No  records 
are  at  hand  for  the  Wisconsin  settlements,  but  in  1858  the 
first  Norwegian  was  elected  to  the  board  of  supervisors  in 
Goodhue  County,  Minnesota,  and  in  the  following  year 
Hans  Mattson,  who  was  active  in  building  up  the  town  of 
Vasa,  where  he  filled  various  town  offices,  was  elected 
auditor  of  the  county.13  He  continued  to  fill  the  office 
until  July,  1862,  tho  in  name  only  for  the  last  months, 
for  in  the  minutes  of  Board  of  Supervisors  of  Goodhue 
County  appears  the  resolution  that  "because  the  County 
Auditor,  Hans  Mattson,  has  voluntarily  gone  to  the  war 
with  a  company  of  soldiers,  a  leave  of  absence  shall  be 
extended  to  him,  and  that  the  office  shall  not  be  declared 
vacant  so  long  as  the  deputy  properly  performs  the  duties 
of  the  place."14 

Hans  Mattson  was  only  one  of  many  who  found  Good- 
hue  County  politics  and  a  term  of  service  in  the  army 
excellent  fitting  schools  for  larger  activity  in  State  affairs. 
One  of  the  Norwegians  who  served  an  apprenticeship  in 
Wisconsin,  a  journeymanship  in  Iowa,  and  came  to  the 
master-grade  of  citizenship — office-holding — in  Minnesota, 
was  Lars  K.  Aaker,  who  represented  Goodhue  County  in 
the  Minnesota  Legislature  in  1859-1860.  After  service  as 
first  lieutenant  in  Mattson's  Scandinavian  Company,  he 
again  sat  in  the  Legislature  in  1862,  1867,  and  1869. 
Again  after  twelve  years  of  residence  in  Goodhue  County 
he  moved  to  Otter  Tail  County,  and  represented  that 
county  in  the  State  Senate,  later  becoming  Register  of 
the  United  States  Land  Office.  In  1864,  he  moved  again, 
to  Crookston,  in  the  extreme  northwestern  corner  of  Min- 
nesota, where  he  served  as  Receiver  of  the  Land  Office 
from  1884  to  1893.15  As  the  counties  and  towns  have 

13Mattson,  The  Story  of  An  Emigrant,  50. 

"Mattson,  The  Story  of  an  Emigrant,  62. 

"Personal  interview  with  Mr.  Aaker,  May,  1890.  He  was  school 
teacher,  in  English,  and  school  district  clerk  in  Wisconsin  before  moving 
to  Iowa  and  Minnesota.  See  also  Minnesota  Legislative  Manual,  1893, 
89-92;  Nelson,  History  of  the  Scandinavians,  I,  365. 


377]         SCANDINAVIAN  IN  LOCAL  AND  STATE  POLITICS  147 

multiplied,  by  the  biological  process  of  division,  in  Min- 
nesota and  the  Dakotas,  Scandinavian  names  recur  more 
and  more  frequently  in  their  records,  tho  it  is  not  always 
easy,  especially  since  1880,  to  identify  such  names,  for  the 
Norsemen  have  had  a  habit  of  Americanizing  their  original 
names  or  changing  them  altogether  either  with  or  without 
legal  process.16 

The  county  offices  which  seem  to  be  most  attractive 
to  the  Scandinavians  are  those  of  sheriff,  treasurer,  audi- 
tor, and  register  of  deeds.  The  lists  of  county  officers  for 
several  years  in  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  and  the  Dakotas, 
show  that  the  number  of  Swedes  and  Norwegians  in  the 
four  offices  just  mentioned  was  closely  proportioned  to 
their  percentage  in  the  population  of  the  States  named.17 
Because  the  Scandinavians  are  less  numerous  in  the  other 
county  offices,  their  proportion  of  the  total  offices  in  the 
counties  of  the  States  falls  considerably  below  their  pro- 
portion of  the  population.  Estimating  on  the  basis  of  a 
sure  minimum,  with  the  difficulties  in  identifying  names 
eliminated,  the  Scandinavians  for  several  years  about  1895 
filled  approximately  one-fifth  of  the  1235  county  offices 
in  Minnesota,  one-fifth  of  the  268  in  North  Dakota-  and 
one-tenth  of  the  702  in  Wisconsin.  Their  numbers  relative 
to  the  population  in  each  State  were  respectively  one- 
fourth  in  Minnesota,  two-fifths  in  North  Dakota,  one- 
eighth  in  Wisconsin,  and  one-fifth  in  South  Dakota.  More 
recent  illustrations  are  to  be  found  in  the  election  of  1904. 
In  Traill  County,  North  Dakota,  the  sixth  in  size  of  the 
forty  counties  in  the  State,  the  sheriff,  judge,  treasurer, 

16By  these  changes  Johanson  became  Johnson ;  Hanson,  Jackson ; 
Fjeld,  Field;  Larson,  Lawson  (as  Victor  F.  Lawson,  the  great  newspaper 
owner  of  Chicago).  By  taking  the  homestead  name,  the  too  common  name 
of  Olson  was  changed  to  Tuve  in  one  case,  while  Adolf  Olson  became 
Adolf  Olson  Bjelland  in  another. 

"Minnesota  Legislative  Manual,  1893,  341-366  (naming  16  officers  for 
most  counties)  ;  Wisconsin  Blue  Book,  1895,  630  (naming  10)  ;  North  Da- 
kota Legislative  Manual,  1895 ;  Basford,  South  Dakota  Handbook  and  Of- 
ficial and  Legislative  Manual,  1894,  16-120. 


148  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [378 

auditor,  register,  surveyor,  coroner,  and  superintendent  of 
schools  were  of  Scandinavian  origin;  in  Lac  Qui  Parle 
County,  Minnesota,  a  similar  clean  sweep  was  made; 
while  in  Yellow  Medicine  County  seven  out  of  ten  princi- 
pal officers  were  Scandinavians.18 

The  first  Scandinavian  to  enter  the  field  of  State  poli- 
tics, was  James  D.  Reymert,  a  Norwegian,  who  represented 
Racine  County  in  the  second  constitutional  convention  of 
Wisconsin  in  1847,  and  later  in  the  Assembly  of  that  State, 
first  from  Racine  County  and  then  from  Milwaukee  County 
in  1857. 19  He  was  also  a  candidate  for  presidential  elector 
on  the  Free  Soil  ticket  in  1840.20  The  son  of  a  Scotch 
mother,  and  receiving  part  of  his  education  in  Scotland, 
he  was  better  prepared  than  other  Norwegians  for  taking 
part  in  politics,  and  for  the  work  of  editing  the  first  Nor- 
wegian newspaper  in  America,  Nordlyset — "The  Northern 
Light" — which  appeared  in  1847  as  a  Free  Soil  organ.21 
In  the  constitutional  convention  he  was  not  active  in  the 
debates,  tho  he  advocated  a  six-months'  residence  as  a 
qualification  for  voting,  saying,  "as  to  foreigners,  the 
sooner  they  were  entitled  to  vote,  the  better  citizens  they 
would  make."22  For  one  provision  of  the  Wisconsin  con- 
stitution he  was  personally  responsible:  Article  VII,  sec- 
tion 16,  which  directed  the  legislature  to  establish  courts 
or  tribunals  of  conciliation.23  But  in  spite  of  the  com- 
mand, "The  legislature  shall  pass  laws"  for  these  courts, 
no  such  law  was  ever  passed  in  Wisconsin. 

Down  to  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  the  Scandinavians 
exercised  very  little  influence  in  State  politics.  Here  and 
there  one  or  two  of  them  appeared  as  members  of  conven- 

19Amerika,  Nov.  18,  1904. 

^Journal  of  the  Second  Convention,  18;  Tenney,  Fathers  of  Wiscon- 
sin, 249;  Lange\and,Nordni(endene  i  Amerika,  94-96;  Wisconsin  Blue  Book, 
(1895),  141,  173. 

20Langeland,  Nordmcendene  i  Amerika,  96. 

21/Wd.,  95. 

22Journal  of  the  Second  Convention,  31,  129. 

"Ibid.,  422,  638;   Poore,  Charters  and  Constitutions  (2nd  ed.),  2037. 


379]        SCANDINAVIAN  IN  LOCAL  AND  STATE  POLITICS          149 

tions  or  of  the  legislatures,  but  even  in  Wisconsin  the 
number  rarely  went  above  two  in  a  single  session  of  the 
legislature.24  By  1870  many  of  the  Norwegians  and 
Swedes  were  well-to-do,  while  others  who  had  served  in 
the  Civil  War  returned  to  their  homes  with  the  prestige 
conferred  by  honorable  -service  in  that  great  struggle. 
Furthermore,  the  suspicion  with  which  foreign-born  citi- 
zens had  been  viewed  was  greatly  reduced,  if  not  dissi- 
pated, by  the  highest  evidence  which  any  man  can  give  of 
his  patriotism  and  loyalty  to  his  adopted  country.  No  one 
might  thenceforth  deny  them  any  of  the  rights,  privileges, 
and  honors  of  the  political  gild.  Accordingly  the  number 
of  them  elected  to  the  legislatures  in  the  Northwest  after 
1870  increases  noticeably  both  in  Wisconsin  and  Minne- 
sota, and  in  the  Dakotas,  where  rapid  material  develop- 
ment and  growth  of  population  furnished  unusual  political 
opportunities  which  the  Norwegians  and  Swedes  were  not 
slow  to  improve. 

In  the  Wisconsin  legislature  of  1868  sat  2  Norwe- 
gians; in  1869,  3;  in  1871,  4.25  In  Minnesota,  the  figures 
are  striking:  1868,  2  Scandinavians;  1870,  4;  1872,  9; 
and  1873,  13.26  Since  then  the  percentage  of  Norse  repre- 
sentatives has  steadily  grown,  tho  it  is  not  always  easy  to 
determine  the  racial  stock  from  which  a  native-born  officer 
came.  Recent  Wisconsin  legislatures  had  apparently  out 
of  a  total  membership  of  133,  in  1895,  5  Scandinavians; 
in  1901,  10  (1  Dane,  1  Swede,  and  8  Norwegians) ;  in  1903, 
6.27  The  Minnesota  legislature  of  1893  had  9  out  of  54 
senators,  and  20  out  of  114  representatives,  who  were  of 
Viking  origin — fully  one-sixth  of  the  total  membership. 

24Wisconsin  Blue  Book,  1895,  I36ff;  Minnesota  Legislative  Manual, 
1893,  87-92 ;  History  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  Valley,  573 ;  Nelson,  History 
of  the  Scandinavians,  I,  390. 

^Wisconsin  Blue  Book,  1895,  I36ff.  For  the  more  recent  legislatures 
it  is  possible  to  be  fairly  exact  in  these  data,  since  the  blue  books  and 
manuals  give  biographical  sketches. 

^Minnesota  Legislative  Manual,  1895,  573  ff. 

"Wisconsin  Blue  Books,  1895,  66;  1901,  733ff;  1903,  7406?. 


150  THE  SCANDINAVIAN   ELEMENT  [380 

In  the  legislatures  of  1899  and  1905  the  numbers  were  as 
follows  :28 
1899 
Senate  63  members     Norwegian     7   (3  American  born) 

Swede  2 

House  119  members     Norwegian  16  (3  American  born) 

Swede  9  (4  American  born) 

Dane  1 

1905 
Senate  63  members     Norwegian     7 

Swede  4 

House  119  members     Norwegian  20   (7  American  born) 

Swede  9 

In  the  newer  States  to  the  West,  the  percentages  rise 
still  higher.  In  North  Dakota,  the  legislature  of  93  mem- 
bers contained  17  men  of  Scandinavian  parentage  in  1895, 
and  18  in  1901 — 16  Norwegians  (4  American  born),  one 
Dane,  and  one  Icelander.29  Unofficial  figures  for  1904 
gave  the  Scandinavians  38  out  of  140  members.30  South 
Dakota  in  1894  had  15  Norwegians  (5  native-born)  and  5 
Swedes,  in  a  legislative  body  of  127 ;  in  1897,  17 ;  in  1903, 
16;  and  in  1904,  17.31 

In  the  executive  and  administrative  departments  of 
State  government,  as  distinguished  from  the  legislative, 
the  participation  of  the  Scandinavians  notably  increased 
after  1869.  In  the  summer  of  that  year,  a  Scandinavian 
convention  was  held  in  Minneapolis  for  the  express  pur- 
pose of  booming  Colonel  Hans  Mattson  for  the  office  of 
Secretary  of  State  in  Minnesota.  Of  his  fitness  there  was 
no  doubt,  for  in  addition  to  holding  local  offices  in  Good- 
hue  County  and  his  service  in  the  army,  he  had  for  two 
years  served  as  Commissioner  of  Emigration.  The  Repub- 

2*Minnesota  Legislative  Manuals  for  1893,  1899,  1905. 

^Legislative  Manual  of  North  Dakota,  1895,  18;  North  Dakota  Senate 
Journal,  1901,  i ;  North  Dakota  House  Journal,  1901,  i. 

a°Amerika,  Nov.  18,  1904, 

31Basford,  Political  Handbook  (South  Dakota),  I49-I975  Senate 
Journal  and  House  Journal,  1897,  1903;  Amerika,  Nov.  18,  1904. 


381]         SCANDINAVIAN  IN  LOCAL  AND  STATE  POLITICS  151 

licans  took  the  hint  and  nominated  him  almost  unani- 
mously in  September,  and  his  election  followed.  He 
served  one  term  at  this  time  and  by  re-elections  filled  the 
same  office  from  1887  to  1891.32  So  frequently  have 
Swedes  and  Norwegians  been  elected  to  this  office  both  in 
Minnesota  and  in  the  Dakotas  that  it  might  almost  be  said 
that  they  have  a  prescriptive  right  to  it.33  In  the  thirty- 
seven  years  ending  in  January,  1907,  the  Swedes  filled  the 
office  in  Minnesota  sixteen  years  and  the  Norwegians  four 
years.34  Other  State  offices  like  those  of  Treasurer,  Audi- 
tor, and  Lieutenant  Governor,  not  to  mention  commission- 
erships  and  appointments  to  boards,  have  also  been  fre- 
quently filled  by  Scandinavians  in  the  States  of  the  North- 
west.35 

The  first  Scandinavian  to  reach  the  eminence  of  a 
governorship  was  Knute  Nelson,  an  emigrant  from  Voss, 
near  Bergen  in  Norway,  in  1849,  who,  after  service  in  the 
Civil  War,  was  elected  in  succession  to  the  legislatures  of 
Wisconsin  and  Minnesota  and  to  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States.  Nominated  by  acclamation  for  governor 
of  Minnesota  on  the  Republican  ticket  in  1892,  he  was 
elected  by  a  plurality  of  14,620  votes;  two  years  later  he 
was  unanimously  re-nominated,  and  re-elected  by  a  plural- 
ity of  more  than  60,000  votes.36  He  served  only  one 
month  of  his  second  term,  accepting  election  to  the  United 
States  Senate,  to  the  disappointment,  not  to  say  the  dis- 
gust, of  many  who  had  voted  for  him  for  Governor,  who 
considered  him  in  duty  bound  to  serve  in  that  capacity 
after  accepting  their  suffrages. 

32Mattson,  The  Story  of  an  Emigrant,  115;  Minnesota  Legislative 
Manual,  1905,  99. 

^Minnesota  Legislative  Manual,  1905,  99;  North  Dakota  Legislative 
Manual,  1895,  66;  South  Dakota  Legislative  Manual,  1894,  130,  134. 

^Minnesota  Legislative  Manual,  1905,  99,  627. 

35Ibid.,  99-106,  627-637;  Wisconsin  Blue  Book,  1895,  66aff;  South 
Dakota  Political  Handbook,  1894,  I3off ;  The  Viking,  I,  3  (1906). 

86Stenholt,  Knute  Nelson,  68-78 ;  Nelson,  History  of  the  Scandinavians, 
I,  451 ;  Minnesota  Legislative  Manual,  1893,  549. 


152  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [382 

The  second  Scandinavian  governor  was  a  Swede  born 
in  Smaaland,  who  landed  in  the  United  States  in  1868  at 
the  age  of  fourteen — John  Lind.  Passing  up  through  such 
political  gradations  as  county  superintendent  of  schools, 
receiver  of  the  United  States  Land  Office,  and  Republican 
representative  in  Congress,  he  allied  himself  with  the  free- 
silver  movement  of  1896  and  became  the  Fusion  candidate 
for  governor  of  Minnesota.  Opposed  by  the  leading  Swedes 
who  remained  loyal  to  the  Republican  party,  he  was  de- 
feated by  a  small  majority,  tho  supported  by  many  of  the 
Norwegians.  The  Spanish  War,  in  which  he  served  as 
quartermaster  of  volunteers,  gave  him  a  new  claim  to 
popular  favor,  and  when  he  again  ran  for  governor  in  1898 
he  was  elected  by  a  combination  of  Democrats  and  Popu- 
lists, turning  his  former  deficiency  of  3,496  into  a  plurality 
of  20,399. 37  This  victory  was  due  more  to  a  revolt  against 
the  Republican  candidate  than  to  clannish  support  of  a 
Swede  by  Swedes,  for  the  two  strongholds  of  the  Swedes, 
Chisago  and  Goodhue  Counties,  went  Republican  as  usual, 
while  the  German  and  Irish  wards  of  St.  Paul  and  Minne- 
apolis gave  majorities  for  Lind. 

The  third  of  Minnesota's  Scandinavian  governors 
came  into  office  under  circumstances  of  distinctly  dramatic 
character.  John  A.  Johnson  was  born  of  Swedish  parents 
in  the  State  over  which  he  was  to  be  made  ruler ;  at  the  age 
of  fourteen  he  became  the  support  of  his  mother  and  of  the 
family,  save  the  inebriate  father  who  was  sent  to  an  alms- 
house  where  he  died.  When  nominated  by  the  Democrats 
in  1904,  Johnson  had  been  for  eighteen  years  editor  of  a 
country  newspaper  printed  in  English.  The  Republicans, 
especially  their  candidate  for  governor,  a  coarse-grained 
distrusted,  machine  politician,  endeavored  to  make  political 
capital  out  of  the  fact  that  Johnson's  father  died  in  the 
poorhouse.  The  Democratic  leaders  persuaded  Johnson 
with  some  difficulty  to  let  the  plain  truth  be  told,  and  told 
on  the  stump — and  Johnson,  the  son  of  a  Swedish  immi- 

*7Svenska  Amerikanska  Posten,  Nov.  22,  1898;  World  Almanac,  1899; 
Nelson,  History  of  the  Scandinavians,  I,  432. 


383]         SCANDINAVIAN  IN  LOCAL  AND  STATE  POLITICS  153 

grant,  a  man  from  a  small,  interior  city,  a  Democrat  in  a 
State  strongly  Republican  as  a  rule,  won  by  a  plurality  of 
6,352  votes  in  a  Presidential  year,  when  Theodore  Roose- 
velt carried  the  State  by  161,464.38  Two  years  of  vigorous 
but  quiet  administration  brought  the  reward  of  a  renomi- 
nation  and  reelection  in  1906  by  a  plurality  of  76,000.39 
Again  in  1908,  another  presidential  year,  Governor  John- 
son was  reelected  by  20,000  plurality,  though  Taft  received 
a  plurality  of  85,000.40 

The  death  of  Governor  Johnson  in  October,  1909,  made 
the  Republican  Lieutenant  Governor,  Adolph  Olson  Eber- 
hardt,  the  fourth  Scandinavian  executive  of  Minnesota.  He 
was  born  in  Sweden,  the  son  of  Andrew  Olson,  and  came 
to  America  in  his  eleventh  year.  He  added  Eberhardt  to 
his  name  by  permission  of  the  proper  court  in  1898  be- 
cause several  other  persons  in  his  community  also  bore  the 
name  of  Adolph  Olson.  Governor  Eberhardt  reached  the 
governor's  chair  by  various  business  and  political  experi- 
ences— as  a  lawyer,  contractor,  United  States  Commis- 
sioner, deputy  clerk  of  the  United  States  District  and  Cir- 
cuit Courts,  State  senator,  and  lieutenant  governor.  He 
was  reelected  in  his  own  right  in  1910  by  a  plurality  of 
60,000,  and  again  in  1912  by  30,000.41 

James  O.  Davidson  rose  to  the  governorship  of  Wis- 
consin through  long  service  in  subordinate  capacities.  Of 
Norwegian  birth,  immigrating  in  1872,  he  was  elected  to 
the  Wisconsin  legislatures  of  1893, 1895, 1897 ;  twice  chosen 
State  Treasurer;  elected  Lieutenant  Governor  on  the 
ticket  with  R.  M.  LaFollette,  and  upon  the  election  of.  the 
latter  to  the  United  States  Senate  succeeded  him  as  gov- 
ernor in  January,  1906.  In  the  summer  of  that  year  Sena- 
tor LaFollette  vainly  stumped  the  State  to  prevent  David- 
son's nomination  for  Governor  on  the  Republican  ticket, 

^Minnesota  Legislative  Manual,  1905,  506,  520.  In  this  election  of 
1904,  P.  E.  Hanson,  a  Swedish  immigrant  of  1857,  was  elected  on  the 
Republican  ticket  as  Secretary  of  State  by  a  plurality  of  more  than  96,000. 

&^World  Almanac,  1907,  487. 

40 1 bid.,  1909,  639. 

41Ibid.,  1911,  673;  1913,  741;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1914-15. 


154  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [384 

and  in  the  election  that  followed  the  Norwegian-born, 
soundly-experienced  Governor  was  chosen  by  the  hand- 
some plurality  of  80,247  votes.42  In  1908  he  was  reelected 
by  a  plurality  of  76,958. 

Still  further  up  the  political  scale,  men  from  North- 
western Europe  have  been  taking  an  active  part  in  national 
affairs.  Sixteen  of  them  have  been  elected  to  the  House 
of  Representatives  of  the  Federal  Congress.  The  first  one 
to  achieve  this  high  position  was  Knute  Nelson  who  sat 
in  the  House  from  1883  to  1889  as  the  Representative  of 
the  Fifth  Minnesota  District.  In  1895  he  was  chosen 
United  States  Senator  and  has  served  continuously  since 
March  4,  1895.43  Others  who  have  served  for  several  terms 
in  the  House  are:  Nils  P.  Hasugen,  a  Norwegian  repre- 
senting a  Wisconsin  district  from  1887  to  1895 ;  John  Lind, 
a  Swede,  who  represented  the  Second  Minnesota  District 
from  1887  to  1893 ;  Asle  J.  Gronna,  who  was  a  member  of 
the  House  from  1905  to  1909,  and  succeeded  Johnson  as 
Senator  from  North  Dakota,  serving  up  to  the  present  time ; 
Gilbert  N.  Haugen,  another  Wisconsin-born  Norwegian, 
who  has  represented  the  Fourth  Iowa  District  since  1899 ; 
Andrew  J.  Volstead,  a  Minnesota-born  Norwegian,  who 
has  sat  for  the  Seventh  Minnesota  District  since  1903 ;  and 
Halvor  Steenerson,  born  in  Dane  County,  Wisconsin,  of 
Norwegian  stock,  who  has  represented  the  Ninth  Minnesota 
District  since  1903.44  Martin  N.  Johnson,  who  was  born  of 
Norwegian  parents  in  Wisconsin,  had  his  first  legislative 

42Wisconsin  Blue  Book  (1903),  1070;  World  Almanac,  1907,  513. 

^Minnesota  Legislative  Manual  (1895),  325-6,  648;  Congressional  Di- 
rectory, May,  1914. 

"Wisconsin  Bluebook  (1895),  191-2;  Congressional  Directories,  1887 
to  1914,  which  contain  brief  biographies  of  Representatives  and  Senators. 
Other  Representatives  for  briefer  terms  than  those  mentioned  above 
are:  from  Minnesota,  Kittle  Halvorson  (Norwegian),  1891  to  1895;  Hal- 
vor E.  Boen  (Norwegian),  1893  to  1895;  Charles  A.  Lindbergh  (Swede), 
since  1906;  from  Wisconsin,  H.  B.  Dahle  (Norwegian),  1899  to  1901; 
John  M.  Nelson  (Norwegian),  since  1906;  and  Irvine  L.  Lenroot  (born  of 
Swedish  parents  in  Wisconsin),  since  1909;  from  North  Dakota,  Henry  T. 
Helgesen  (Norwegian,  born  in  Iowa),  since  1911;  and  from  Utah,  Jacob 
Johnson  (the  only  Dane  who  has  sat  in  the  House),  since  1913. 


385]         SCANDINAVIAN  IN  LOCAL  AND  STATE  POLITICS  155 

experience  in  the  Iowa  legislature,  sat  in  the  House  as 
representative  at  large  from  the  new  State  of  North  Da- 
kota from  1891  to  1899,  and  then,  after  a  period  of  retire- 
ment, was  sent  to  the  United  States  Senate  from  the  same 
State,  serving  from  March,  1909,  until  his  death  in  October 
of  the  same  year. 

An  analysis  of  this  list  of  Representatives  shows  that 
eleven  of  the  sixteen  were  Norwegians  of  the  first  or  second 
generation  of  immigrant  stock,  four  were  Swedes,  and  one 
a  Dane.  Six  of  the  eleven  were  born  in  America,  three  of 
them  in  the  old  Wisconsin  settlements;  only  one  of  these 
represented  the  district  in  which  he  was  born,  the  rest 
receiving  their  reward  in  the  newer  western  sections  into 
which  they  had  migrated  with  the  movement  of  population 
beyond  the  Mississippi. 

Different  Federal  administrations  have  deemed  it  wise 
to  "recognize"  the  Scandinavian  among  other  elements  of 
the  political  population,  in  making  appointments  in  the 
diplomatic  and  consular  services  of  the  United  States.  One 
of  the  most  notable  instances  is  that  of  the  selection  of 
John  Lind,  the  former  governor  of  Minnesota  as  the  per- 
sonal representative  of  President  Wilson  in  Mexico  during 
the  troubled  months  of  1913  and  1914  and  as  adviser  to  the 
United  States  embassy  in  Mexico  City  during  the  period 
following  the  recall  of  Ambassador  Henry  Lane  Wilson. 
Another  instance  of  appointment  in  this  service  is  that  of 
Lauritz  Selmer  Swenson,  a  Norwegian  of  the  second  gen- 
eration, born  in  Minnesota,  who  was  minister  to  Denmark 
from  1897  to  1906,  and  later  received  appointments  as 
minister  to  Switzerland  and  to  Norway,  terminating  the 
latter  in  1913.45  Rasmus  B.  Anderson  represented  the 
United  States  at  the  Danish  court  from  1885  to  1889,  being 
at  that  time  a  Democrat.  He  was  born  in  Wisconsin  of 
pure  Norse  parentage,  and  had  served  as  professor  of  the 
Scandinavian  languages  in  the  University  of  Wisconsin.48 

**Who's  Who  in  America,  1914-5. 

MIbid.;  Anderson,  Norwegian  Immigration,  quoting  from  the  Madison 
Democrat. 


156  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [386 

The  appointment  of  Nicolay  A.  Grevstad  as  minister 
to  Uruguay  and  Paraguay  in  1911  was  a  fitting  recognition 
of  ability  combined  with  long  and  able  service  to  the  people 
of  the  older,  or  middle,  Northwest  as  editor  of  the  Minne- 
apolis \Tribune,  the  Minneapolis  Times,  and  the  great  Chi- 
cago daily,  Skandinaven  (1902-1911).  Hans  Mattson,  a 
Swedish  veteran  of  the  Civil  War,  was  consul  general  at 
Calcutta  from  1883  to  1885  ;47  Soren  Listoe,  the  Danish 
editor  of  Nordvesten  of  St.  Paul,  Minnesota,  was  consul  at 
Dusseldorf,  1882-3,  consul  at  Rotterdam,  1897-1902,  and 
consul  general  at  the  same  city,  1902-1914.48  At  Rotterdam 
he  succeeded  L.  S-  Reque,  a  Norwegian  from  Iowa.  Several 
other  men  have  served  for  long  terms  in  minor  positions  in 
the  foreign  service.49 

47Mattson,  The  Story  of  an  Emigrant,  143-145. 

^Congressional  Directory,   1897,   1907,   1914;  Nelson,  History  of  the 
Scandinavians,  I,  435,  480,  503 ;  II,  195. 
"Peterson,  Svenskarne  i  Illinois,  389. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

PARTY  PREFERENCES  AND  POLITICAL  LEADERSHIP 

The  great  majority  of  the  Scandinavians,  prior  to 
1884,  were  thoro-going  and  uncompromising  Republicans, 
and  tho  the  party  still  holds  most  of  them,  profiting  largely 
from  their  natural  conservatism  and  their  loyalty  to  a 
principle,  it  can  by  no  means  depend  upon  them  with  the 
assurance  it  had  in  the  "good  old  days"  when  to  find  a 
Scandinavian  voter  in  the  Northwest  was  to  find  a  Repub- 
lican. 

The  causes  which  determined  the  early  party  affilia- 
tions of  the  naturalized  sons  of  the  Vikings,  in  the  broad 
area  of  State  and  Federal  affairs,  are  to  be  found  in  the 
character  of  the  immigrants  themselves  and  in  the  great 
questions  agitating  the  country  at  the  time  they  became 
citizens.  Coming  to  the  United  States  with  an  endowment 
of  natural  independence,  with  an  innate  respect  for  govern- 
ment, and  with  an  inclination  for  public  concerns,  their 
interest  was  at  once  actively  aroused  in  the  great  problem 
of  slavery  that  vexed  national  life  from  the  time  of  the 
Sloop  Folk  to  the  Civil  War.  As  their  information  about 
the  slave  system  grew  more  exact,  and  as  the  tremendous 
significance  of  the  restriction  of  the  slave  area  as  a  cardi- 
nal political  issue  was  made  clear  to  their  minds,  they 
became  of  one  mind  in  the  mighty  agitation.  Neither  they 
nor  their  ancestors  for  hundreds  of  years  had  held  slaves; 
few  of  them  had  ever  seen  a  slave,  for  their  numerous  trad- 
ers and  sailors,  with  slight  exceptions,  had  no  smell  of 
blood  of  the  African  slave  trade  on  their  hands.1  It  was 
not  chance,  therefore,  which  kept  the  stream  of  North 
European  immigrants  from  flowing  into  the  South  and 
Southwest;  no  attractiveness  of  climate  or  soil  could  com- 
pensate for  the  presence  of  Negro  slavery.  A  horror  and 
hatred  of  slavery  colored  their  thinking  from  their  first 
month  in  the  New  World;  it  was  first  a  moral,  then  a 

1DuBois,  Suppression  of  the  African  Slave-Trade,  90  n  5,  131,  143  n  i. 

157 


158  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [388 

political,  conviction,  not  the  sentiment  of  individuals,  but 
the  well-reasoned  opinion  of  the  whole  community- 
Bound  together  on  this  great  question,  then  so  domi- 
nant, they  naturally  maintained  unity  on  other  political 
questions  as  well  as  on  slavery ;  and  when  once  their  ideas 
were  fixed,  any  change  would  be  effected  slowly  and  with 
difficulty.  The  newcomers,  in  their  first  months  in  the 
older  settlements,  were  speedily  indoctrinated  with  anti- 
slavery  sentiment.  Thus  it  came  about  that  one  party 
received  and  retained  the  vast  majority  of  the  Scandina- 
vians down  to  1884,  simply  because  a  bent  that  way  was 
given  in  the  early  years  of  immigration  from  the  Northern 
peninsulas,  and  because  the  question  of  the  status  of  the 
Negro,  in  one  form  or  another,  continued  to  be  a  political 
issue. 

The  first  appearance  of  the  Norwegians  in  State  poli- 
tics in  Wisconsin,  as  already  noted,  was  under  the  Free 
Soil  banner  between  1846  and  1848,  when  that  State  was 
endeavoring  to  form  a  constitution.  The  first  constitution 
submitted  to  the  people,  in  1847,  was  rejected  by  a  large 
majority,  including  a  separately-submitted  provision 
granting  equal  suffrage  to  Negroes.  While  the  State 
decisively  voted  thus,  the  counties  in  which  the  Scandina- 
vian vote  was  largest — Racine,  Walworth,  and  Wauke- 
sha — showed  large  majorities  in  favor  of  giving  the 
Negroes  political  privileges  equal  to  those  of  the  Whites. 
On  the  other  hand,  counties  where  the  German  votes  were 
numerous  stood  solidly  against  equal  suffrage,  seemingly 
because  in  the  constitutional  convention  the  question  of 
Negro  suffrage  was  coupled  with  that  of  the  granting  of 
suffrage  to  foreign-born,  in  a  way  that  greatly  displeased 
the  Germans.2  When  the  second  convention  finished  its 
constitution,  in  1848,  resolutions  were  introduced  to  pro- 
vide for  printing  and  distributing  translations  of  the  doc- 
ument, 6000  copies  in  German,  and  4000  copies  in  Norwe- 
gian, a  hint  of  the  relative  strength  of  the  two  groups.3 

2Baker,  History  of  the  Elective  Franchise  in  Wisconsin,  9;  including 
a  reference  to  the  Wisconsin  Banner,  Oct.  17,  1846. 
^Journal  of  the  Second  Convention,  511,  584. 


389]  PARTY  CHOICE  AND  POLITICAL  LEADERSHIP  159 

The  relation  of  James  Keymert  and  his  Nordlyset  to 
the  Free  Soil  movement  has  been  mentioned.  When  the 
Democratic  papers  mercilessly  criticised  the  little  sheet 
and  poked  fun  at  its  name,  the  paper  was  sold  by  Keymert 
to  Knud  Langeland  in  1849,  and  by  him  removed  to  Ra- 
cine;  the  name  was  changed  to  Demokraten,  but  the  poli- 
tics of  the  paper  were  not  affected.4  As  a  political  organ 
among  the  Norwegians,  it  was  ahead  of  the  times;  the 
support  of  the  paper  was  insufficient  to  pay  the  bills,  and 
it  was  discontinued  in  1850.  The  Norwegian  immigrants 
were  unaccustomed  to  a  purely  secular  press;  they  pre- 
ferred to  have  their  politics  wrapped  up  in  papers  labelled 
"religious."  Langeland  declares  that  many  of  them  con- 
sidered it  a  sin  to  read  a  political  newspaper.5  But  the 
Free  Soil  sentiment  was  too  strong  to  go  without  printed 
expression  in  Norwegian;  and  accordingly  the  propaganda 
continued  in  the  form  of  speeches  of  Chase,  Seward,  Hale, 
Giddings,  and  other  anti-slavery  leaders,  which  were  trans- 
lated into  Norwegian  and  mixed  in  with  non-political 
matter  in  Maanedstidende,  a  paper  whose  publication, 
after  the  failure  of  Demokraten,  Langeland  undertook 
along  with  four  clergymen,  Clausen,  Preuss,  Stub,  and 
Hatlestad.6 

As  they  read  these  speeches  of  the  great  leaders,  as 
they  heard  from  Negroes  themselves  the  evils  of  slavery, 
as  they  learned  of  the  high-handed  doings  in  Kansas,  the 
zeal  of  the  Scandinavians  for  human  freedom  increased. 
There  were  no  old  party  traditions,  feelings,  or  feuds,  to 
keep  them  from  judging  the  issue  of  slavery's  expansion 
on  its  merits;  no  loyalty  to  the  memories  of  dead  heroes 
held  them  in  mortmain.  Some  few  of  them  voted  for  Cass 
in  1848  and  for  Pierce  in  1852,  but  by  1856  there  was  only 
one  issue  for  them:  simply  and  straightforwardly  and 

4Langeland,  Nordmandene  i  Amerika,  96. 

5Langeland,  Nordmandene  i  Amerika,  98:     "Den  forste  Indvandrer- 
befolkning  hovedsagelig  bestod  af  Folk  fra  Landsbygderne,  som  for  en 
stor  Del  ikke  var  vant  til  at  laese  andet  end  Deres  Religionsboger,  og 
mange  af  dem  ansaa  det  endog  for  en  Synd  at  laese  politiske  Blade." 
.,  98. 


160  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [390 

almost  to  a  man,  they  became  Republicans.7  The  Demo- 
crats, of  course,  did  not  let  the  children  of  the  North  go 
without  an  effort  to  secure  them  in  their  ranks.  In  1856 
Elias  Stangeland  of  Madison,  Wisconsin,  started  a  Nor- 
wegian paper,  Den  Norske  Amerikaner,  in  support  of 
James  Buchanan.  His  efforts  to  get  Langeland  to  under- 
take the  editorship  failed  because  the  latter  was  an  ardent 
admirer  of  Fremont.  The  paper  had  a  short  life,  and 
probably  Langeland  is  right  in  attributing  its  disappear- 
ance to  the  withdrawal  of  the  Democratic  subsidy.8  A 
long  time  was  to  elapse  before  a  successful  attempt  would 
be  made  to  maintain  a  Democratic  paper  in  Norwegian  or 
Swedish. 

What  the  anti-slavery  agitation  left  undone  towards 
making  the  Scandinavians  unswervingly  Republican,  was 
accomplished  by  the  Civil  War.  The  lingering  glories  of 
the  golden  age  of  the  Democracy  of  Jackson  and  Jefferson 
were  entirely  obscured  by  the  attitude  of  the  Democratic 
party  toward  the  conduct  of  the  war.  Only  when  the 
memories  of  the  Civil  War  grew  less  vivid  and  less  influ- 
ential with  new  arrivals  from  the  Old  World,  and  not  until 
moral  questions  were  superseded  in  political  discussions 
by  economic  questions  relating  to  the  tariff,  currency, 
and  labor,  did  the  Scandinavians  begin  to  arrange  them- 
selves in  any  considerable  numbers  outside  the  Republican 
ranks. 

Four  times  during  the  last  thirty-five  years  the  Scan- 
dinavian voters  in  large  numbers,  under  varying  circum- 
stances and  in  different  degrees  in  different  States,  have 
abjured  Republican  leadership.  After  each  such  excursion 
they  have  returned,  for  the  most  part,  to  their  old  party 
relations,  but  never  with  quite  the  same  fervent,  reliable 
zeal  for  Republican  principles  and  candidates.  The  devel- 
opment of  the  bacillus  of  independence  is  unmistakable. 
One  defection  affected  Wisconsin  alone,  the  only  instance 
where  the  Democrats  profited  directly  by  the  votes  of  large 

7Peterson.  Svenskarne  i  Illinois,  xii ;  Mattson,  The  Story  of  an  Emi- 
grant, 56;  Nelson,  History  of  the  Scandinavians,  I,  305.  310. 
6Langeland,  Nordmcendene  i  Amerika,  no. 


391]  PARTY  CHOICE  AND  POLITICAL  LEADERSHIP  101 

numbers  of  Scandinavians.  At  a  later  time,  when  the  Free 
Silver  and  Populist  ideas  took  strong  hold  on  the  North- 
west, the  Scandinavian  vote  re-enforced  the  personal  pop- 
ularity of  John  Lind,  the  Swedish  candidate  of  the  Popu- 
list-Democratic party,  and  secured  his  election,  tho  the 
rest  of  the  Fusion  ticket  suffered  defeat- 

The  first  time  Norse  voters  broke  from  the  Republican 
ranks  was  in  connection  with  the  Greenback  movement 
which  began  with  the  depression  following  the  panic  of 
1873  and  culminated  in  the  election  of  1880.  Many  of 
them,  especially  the  Swedes  in  Illinois,  became  out-and-out 
Oreenbackers  or  Independents.  In  his  book  on  the  Swedes 
in  Illinois,  published  in  1880,  C.  F.  Peterson  gives  brief 
biographies  of  some  seven  hundred  Swedes,  men  of  all 
walks  of  life  above  day  laborer,  who  may  be  considered  as 
representatives  of  the  40,000  Swedes  in  Illinois  at  that 
time.9  At  least  they  represent  the  classes  which  would  be 
least  likely  to  be  led  off  into  economic  heresies.  Of  628 
whose  party  affiliations  are  stated,  472  were  Republicans; 
76,  Independents ;  55,  Greenbackers ;  and  25,  Democrats  or 
Prohibitionists.  In  other  words,  out  of  the  total  number 
canvassed,  more  than  twenty  per-cent  were  dissenters  from 
Republican  orthodoxy. 

The  relation  of  political  and  religious  sentiment  is 
strikingly  illustrated  in  analyzing  these  biographies,  for 
those  who  were  Lutherans  or  Methodists  were  usually 
Republicans  in  politics,  and  proud  to  belong  to  "the  party 
of  moral  ideas."10  Those  stating  their  religious  prefer- 
ences as  Lutheran  numbered  388,  and  of  these  only  10  were 
Democrats,  16  were  Greenbackers,  and  19  were  Independ- 
ent. On  the  other  hand,  of  131  who  belonged  to  the  three 
political  parties  last  mentioned,  87  were  in  religion  also 
Independent,  Free  Thinkers,  or  "Ingersollites".  For 
States  other  than  Illinois,  no  such  complete  contemporary 
data  are  available ;  but  since  the  Greenback  vote  in  Minne- 

9Peterson,  Svenskarne  i  Illinois,  part  II. 

™Ibid.,  353:   "Medlem     i  de  'moralska   ideernas'  politska  parti — det 
republikanska." 


162  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [392 

sota  was  only  2%  of  the  total,  and  in  Wisconsin  3%,  it  is 
fair  to  assume  that  the  Scandinavians  did  not  desert  the 
Republican  standard  in  very  large  numbers  in  those  States. 

The  second  case  of  considerable  defection  among  the 
Republican  Scandinavians  occurred  after  the  widespread 
development  of  agrarian  discontent  in  the  late  eighties. 
The  farmers  and  laborers,  American  and  Scandinavian 
alike,  felt  the  stress  of  hard  times,  turned  to  political 
agencies  for  relief,  forsook  the  old  parties,  and  formed  the 
party  called  variously  the  Populist,  People's,  and  Farmers' 
Alliance  Party.  Besides  those  Norwegians  and  Swedes 
who  had  been  for  years  Republicans,  whose  political  color 
was  fixed  by  the  mordant  of  slavery  and  the  Civil  War, 
there  was  then  a  very  large  number  of  men  who  arrived  in 
the  vast  immigrant  invasions  between  1880  and  1885,  and 
who  were  just  coming  into  the  full  exercise  of  the  rights  of 
citizenship-  An  increasing  proportion  of  these  later  arri- 
vals went  to  the  large  cities  and  towns.  All  of  them  were 
moved  less  by  the  traditions  of  "moral  ideas"  and  more  by 
the  contagious  discontent  of  the  older  settlers  and  by  the 
arguments  of  industrial  and  political  agitators. 

In  the  election  of  1890  a  serious  break  occurred  in  the 
Republican  Party  in  Minnesota  and  in  the  Dakotas.  There 
was  a  general  impression  in  the  rural  districts  of  Minne- 
sota that  the  Republican  candidate  for  governor,  William 
R.  Merriam,  a  wealthy  banker  of  St.  Paul,  was  renomi- 
nated  for  his  second  term  by  a  political  ring  composed  of 
lumber-kings,  wheat  dealers,  and  millers  who  combined  to 
cheat  and  rob  the  farmer.  Accordingly  the  Farmers'  Alli- 
ance nominated  a  third  ticket  headed  by  S.  M.  Owen,  the 
editor  of  an  agricultural  paper  in  Minneapolis,  who  polled 
a  vote  of  58,513,  and  reduced  Merriam's  vote  of  1888  by 
about  46,000.1X  Merriam  was  re-elected  by  a  plurality  of 

^Minnesota  Legislative  Manual,  1893,  482: 

1888  1890 

Republican  candidate 134,355  88,111 

Democratic  candidate  110,251  85,844 

Prohibition  candidate 17,026  8,424 

Farmers'   Alliance   candidate 58,513 


393]  PARTY  CHOICE  AXD  POLITICAL  LEADERSHIP  163 

less  than  2,500,  tho  he  had  had  more  than  24,000  two  years 
before. 

A  careful  examination  of  the  votes  for  1888  and  1890 
in  such  strong  Scandinavian  counties  as  Otter  Tail,  Doug- 
las, Chisago,  Freeborn,  Polk,  and  Norman  leaves  no  doubt 
that  the  Swedes  and  Norwegians  in  very  large  numbers 
either  voted  for  Owen,  or  refused  to  vote  for  Merriam.12 
In  some  cases  the  Republican  vote  fell  off  one-half  and 
even  two-thirds,  and  third-party  Alliance  candidates  for  the 
legislature  were  elected.  A  prominent  Norwegian  writer 
estimated  that  "25,000  Norwegian-born  farmers  turned 
their  backs  upon  Mr.  Merriam  and  voted  for  Mr.  Owen  for 
governor,"  disregarding  the  injunction  of  the  Scandinavian 
Republican  press  to  "stick  to  the  grand  old  party,  for  the 
grand  old  party  is  particularly  favorable  to  the  Scandina- 
vians, and  the  best  political  party  in  America."13 

At  the  next  state  election  in  the  presidential  year, 
1892,  a  Norwegian  ran  for  governor  on  the  Republican 
ticket,  and  a  large  part  of  the  Scandinavian  deserters 
wheeled  into  line  and  voted  the  Republican  ticket.  With 
a  total  vote  only  15,000  greater  than  in  1890,  the  vote  for 
the  Republican  candidate  for  governor  increased  in  round 
number  20,000,  for  the  Democratic  candidate,  9,000,  and 
for  the  Prohibition  candidate,  4,000,  while  the  vote  of  the 
Alliance  or  People's  party  fell  off  20,000. 14 

Conditions  in  North  Dakota  and  South  Dakota  were 
even  more  favorable  to  the  new  party  than  in  Minnesota. 

^Minnesota  Legislative  Manual,  1889,  397;  1893,  472. 

13Mr.  J.  J.  Skordalsvold  in  The  North,  Aug.  10,  1892. 

14The  ticket  in  Minneapolis,  Hennepin  County,  Minnesota,  in  this  year, 
1892,  is  an  interesting  illustration  of  "recognition"  of  the  power  of  the 
recent  deserters.  The  Scandinavians  had : 

Republican    Democrat     Populist 

Presidential  elector „ I  22 

Governor  or  Lietwbnant  Governor i  I 

Secretary    of    State _ i  I  I 

Legislative  ticket _ ~ 2  2 

County  officers —  2  i 

City  officers  4  i 

Minneapolis  Journal,  Nov.  3,  1892. 


164  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [394 

Estimates  based  on  a  study  of  statistics  and  newspapers 
have  been  confirmed  by  prominent  officials  of  those  States, 
one  of  whom  declares  that  "in  some  localities  quite  a  per- 
cent has  joined  the  Populist  party;  but  it  is  very  rare 
indeed  to  find  a  Scandinavian  Democrat."13  Another  be- 
lieves that  a  considerable  portion  of  the  Scandinavians 
voted  the  Populist  ticket  in  1892  and  in  1894,  but  that  they 
were  normally  believers  in  the  protective  principle  and 
therefore  naturally  affiliated  with  the  Republican  party.16 
A  German  lawyer  of  Valley  City,  North  Dakota,  a  Demo- 
crat, practically  agreed  with  the  Norwegian  city  attorney 
of  Devil's  Lake  in  the  same  State,  the  one  saying  that  a 
large  part  of  the  Norse  voters  were  Populists,  the  other 
declaring  that  the  Populist  party  was  largely  composed  of 
Scandinavians.17  All  agreed  that  these  voters  later  tended 
to  return  to  their  former  Republican  alliance.  It  may  be 
doubted,  however,  whether  the  hold  of  the  protection  idea 
is  one  of  the  primary  reasons  for  Scandinavian  Republi- 
canism. At  any  rate  the  vote  of  the  Hon.  Knute  Nelson 
for  the  Mills  Bill  for  tariff  revision  in  1888 — one  of  six 
Republican  votes  for  the  measure — did  not  make  him  po- 
litically persona  non  grata  or  a  suspicious  character  among 
his  Norwegian  or  Swedish  brethren. 

Another  index  of  the  shifting  of  political  sentiment 
among  the  Norse  voters  is  found  in  the  changes  in  the 
party  affiliations  of  Scandinavian  newspapers,  tho  the 
varying  importance  of  these  journals  imposes  special  cau- 
tion in  interpreting  these  figures.  It  would  be  obviously 
unfair  to  offset  the  staunch  and  well-supported  Republican- 
ism of  the  ably-edited  and  widely-circulated  Skandinaven 
of  Chicago  with  the  less  stable  Normannen  of  Stoughton, 
Wisconsin,  which  had  not  one-third  the  circulation  nor 


"Letter  of  Thomas  Thorson,  Secretary  of  State  of  South  Dakota, 
April  9,  1906. 

18Letter  of  C.  M.  Dahl,  Secretary  of  State  of  North  Dakota,  March 
24,  1896. 

"Letter  of  E.  Winterer,  Valley  City,  March  21,  1896,  and  of  Siver 
Serumgard,  March  24,  1896. 


395]  PARTY  CHOICE  AND  POLITICAL  LEADERSHIP  165 

one-tenth  of  the  influence  of  the  metropolitan  journal.18 
The  "mugwump  spirit"  of  the  press  is  well  illustrated  by 
the  case  of  Norden,  a  Norwegian  weekly  of  Chicago,  Re- 
publican up  to  1884,  when  it  took  an  independent  attitude. 
In  1888  it  became  avowedly  Democratic  and  supported 
Grover  Cleveland  for  the  presidency  This  move  was  made 
only  after  the  proprietor  and  editor  assured  themselves 
that  the  patrons  of  the  paper  would  sustain  them  in  the 
proposed  change.19 

Of  the  secular  political  Scandinavian  papers  pub- 
lished in  Minnesota  in  1889  nine  were  Republican — five 
Norwegian  or  Norwegian-Danish,  four  Swedish;  three 
were  Democratic, — all  Norwegian;  two  were  Prohibition- 
ist, one  Norwegian  and  one  Swedish ;  and  one  was  Labor, — 
Norwegian.20  In  the  next  five  years,  the  independent  press 
in  Minnesota  and  other  states  increased  in  numbers  at 
least,  and  included  such  influential  journals  as  Amerika, 
and  Folkebladet.  George  Taylor  Rygh,  professor  of  Scan- 
dinavian languages  in  the  University  of  North  Dakota, 
estimated  in  1893  that  "until  a  few  years  ago  over  four- 
fifths  of  the  [Scandinavian]  secular  press  were  strictly 
Republican  in  politics.  One  after  another  has  ceased  to 
defend  the  Republican  party,  and  today  not  more  than 
one-third  of  the  whole  number  are  strictly  Republican."21 
While  this  personal  opinion  or  impression  is  probably  ex- 
aggerated, it  may  represent  approximately  the  temporary 
state  of  that  year  if  proper  emphasis  be  laid  on  the  word 
"strictly."  Since  there  appears  to  be  no  evidence  that  these 
papers,  with  two  or  three  exceptions,  were  subsidized  to 
induce  their  change  of  political  creed,  it  is  reasonable  to 
conclude  that  they  had  behind  them  a  solidified  constitu- 


18Rowell,  American  Newspaper  Directory  for  1896,  1901,  1906;  Cosmo- 
politan, Oct.,  1890,  689. 

"Interview  in  1890  with  the  editor  of  Norden,  Mr.  P.  O.  Stromme. 
He  said  that  the  change  was  an  excellent  move  for  the  paper. 

20Minnesota  Legislative  Manual,  1889,  432-445. 

21G.  T.  Rygh,  "The  Scandinavian  American,"  Literary  Northwest, 
Feb.,  1893.  He  estimated  the  total  number  of  papers  at  "about  125." 


166  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [396 

ency,  for  they  were  run  neither  for  personal  amusement, 
pure  philanthropy,  nor  mere  partisan  propaganda. 

The  third  defection  occurred  in  Wisconsin  alone,  and 
took  its  rise  in  a  purely  local  question.  Its  interest  lies  in 
the  peculiar  and  remarkable  temporary  alliance  to  which 
it  led.  The  Wisconsin  Legislature  passed  an  act,  approved 
April  18,  1889,  "concerning  the  education  and  employment 
of  children."22  To  the  ordinary  provisions  for  coercing 
parents  and  children,  so  that  all  children  between  the  ages 
of  seven  and  fourteen  years  should  attend  at  least  twelve 
weeks  in  some  public  or  private  school  in  the  city  or  town 
or  district  in  which  they  lived,  nobody  objected.  But  the 
fifth  section  of  the  act,  which  was  known  as  the  Bennett 
Law,  was  in  certain  church  circles,  like  a  dash  of  vitriol 
in  the  face: 

"No  school  shall  be  regarded  as  a  school  under  this 
act  unless  there  shall  be  taught  therein  as  a  part  of  the 
elementary  education  of  the  children,  reading,  writing, 
arithmetic,  and  United  States  history,  in  the  English  lan- 
guage." 

The  last  four  words  of  this  section,  innocent  and  rea- 
sonable as  they  look  to  the  average  American,  stirred  up 
one  of  the  bitterest  political  fights  ever  known  in  Wiscon- 
sin. The  Koman  Catholic  church,  unalterably  committed 
to  a  system  of  parochial  schools  in  many  of  which  instruc- 
tion is  given  in  a  foreign  language,  was  for  once  in  accord 
with  the  German  and  Scandinavian  Lutherans  who  main- 
tained similar  schools.  The  compulsory  use  of  English  in 
instructing  pupils  in  specified  subjects  turned  priests  and 
pastors  and  whole  congregations  into  active,  vociferous 
politicians,  for  Germans,  Norwegians,  Poles,  and  Bohe- 
mians claimed  the  right  to  educate  their  children  in  paro- 
chial schools  of  their  own  choosing.  Was  not  education 
education,  whether  carried  on  in  English  or  German  or 
Polish  or  Norwegian?  Were  not  the  graduates  of  church 
schools,  even  tho  they  spoke  English  brokenly  or  with 
brogue,  just  as  intelligent,  just  as  capable,  just  as  indus- 

22Laws  of  Wisconsin,  1889,  ch.  519. 


397]  PARTY  CHOICE  AND  POLITICAL  LEADERSHIP  167 

trious,  and  just  as  honest,  as  those  educated  in  the  "little 
red  school  house"  and  the  public  high  school?23  The  chair- 
man of  the  Lutheran  Committee  on  School  Legislation 
stated  the  matter  clearly  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
churches : 

"The  Lutherans  of  Wisconsin  do  not  oppose  the  Ben- 
nett Law  because  they  are  the  enemies  of  the  English 
language.  .  .  .  The  Lutherans  oppose  the  present  compul- 
sory school  law  because — whether  designedly  or  not — it  in 
fact  infringes  on  the  rights  of  conscience  guaranteed  by 
the  constitution,  and  the  right  of  parents  to  educate  ac- 
cording to  their  convictions,  their  own  children In 

short,  the  Lutherans  insist  upon  their  right  to  establish 
private  schools  at  their  own  expense,  and  regulate  them, 

without  any  intereference  on  the  part  of  the  State, 

that  their  children  may  become  Lutheran  Christians  as 
well  as  loyal  and  good  citizens."24  The  official  circular  of 
the  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  of  Wiscon- 
sin, dated  January  25, 1890,  almost  a  year  after  the  passage 
of  the  act,  was  a  statement  of  the  opposite  point  of  view, 
and  a  justification  of  attempts  to  enforce  the  law.  Inci- 
dentally it  was  a* political  pamphlet  as  well.  Superintend- 
ent Thayer  said:  "The  thing  that  is  antagonized  by  this 
law  is  the  practice  of  allowing  children  of  this  State  of 
proper  school  age,  to  pass  that  period  of  life  without  ac- 
quiring the  minimum  of  education  in  elementary  branches ; 
without  acquiring  the  ability  to  think  in  the  language  of 
the  country,  to  express  themselves  intelligibly  in  that  lan- 
guage, orally,  in  writing,  and  in  business  forms." 

All  through  the  latter  part  of  1889  and  the  first  ten 
months  of  1890,  the  agitation  went  on.  The  press  gave 
great  space  to  it;  some  papers  through  several  months, 
both  in  Wisconsin  and  in  the  neighboring  States  where 

23The  Bennett  Law  Analyzed,  a  campaign  pamphlet  issued  by  the 
Republicans  in  1890,  in  English,  German,  Polish,  and  Norwegian,  had  for 
its  heading  a  picture  of  a  district  school  house  labelled  "The  Little  School 
House,"  and  underneath,  "Stand  by  It." 

24See  F.  W.  A.  Notz,  "Parochial  School  System"  in  Stearns  (editor), 
The  Columbian  History  of  Education  in  Wisconsin  (1893). 


168  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [398 

Lutherans  and  Catholics  were  numerous,  offered  "sympo- 
siums" which  printed  arguments  on  both  sides.25  Public 
Opinion  summarized  the  sentiment  for  the  larger  world.20 
Church  assemblies  took  action,  and  finally  an  Anti-Ben- 
nett Law  convention  was  held  in  Milwaukee,  June  4,  1890. 
The  Democrats  were  not  slow  in  seizing  the  advantage 
offered,  and  managed  their  campaign  of  1890  very  shrewdly. 
The  combination  of  sternly  anti-Catholic  German  and 
Norwegian  Lutherans,  usually  Republican,  with  Roman 
Catholics,  under  the  Democratic  banner,  was  irresistible. 
In  spite  of  the  frantic  appeals  of  the  Republican  press  and 
speakers  for  loyalty  to  the  American  flag  and  to  the  "little 
red  school  house,"  the  Democrats  elected  their  candidate 
for  governor,  and  a  legislature  pledged  to  give  the  desired 
relief.  By  the  six-line  act  of  February  5, 1891,  the  Bennett 
Law  was  repealed,  and  two  months  later  another  compul- 
sory education  act  was  passed  without  the  offensive  and 
troublesome  four  words.27  The  work  of  the  Lutheran- 
Catholic  alliance  was  done;  the  heterogeneous,  naturally 
antagonistic  elements  fell  apart;  and  in  a  few  years  old 
party  lines  were  re-established.  The  plurality  of  28,000 
by  which  the  Democratic  Governor,  G.  W.  Peck,  was  elected 
in  1890,  overcoming  the  usual  Republican  plurality  of 
about  20,000,  was  reduced  at  his  re-election  in  1892  to 
7,700.  In  1894  the  Republican  candidate  defeated  Gov- 
ernor Peck  by  the  handsome  plurality  of  50,000  votes.28 

While  the  Bennett  Law  agitation  was  going  on  in 
Wisconsin,  a  similar,  but  milder  disturbance  occurred  in 
Illinois.  The  compulsory  education  act  of  the  latter  State, 
which  went  into  effect  July  1,  1889,  was  closely,  if  not 
deliberately,  modelled  after  the  Wisconsin  statute,  and 
enacted  that  "no  school  shall  be  regarded  as  a  school  under 
this  act,  unless  there  shall  be  taught  therein  in  the  English 
language,  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  history  of  the 

2*The  North,  Apr.  30,  May  7,  14,  21,  28,  June  4,  25,  July  2,  1890. 
-^Public  Opinion,  IX,  no.  I,  Apr.  12,  1890. 
27Laws  of  Wisconsin,  1891,  chaps.  4,  187. 
29  Wisconsin  Bluebook  (1895),  342-342,  347. 


399]  PARTY  CHOICE  AND  POLITICAL  LEADERSHIP  169 

United  States,  and  geography.29  In  the  campaign  of  1890, 
the  Republican  candidate  for  State  Superintendent  of 
Education,  favoring  the  new  compulsory  education  law, 
was  defeated  by  some  36,000  votes  by  Eaab,  the  Democratic 
candidate  who  opposed  the  law.  The  Norwegians  and 
Danes  in  the  city  of  Chicago  probably  voted  for  Raab  in 
large  numbers,  tho  he  won  the  Swedish  wards  of  that  city 
by  small  pluralities.  In  such  counties  as  Knox,  with  its 
two  thousand  Swedish  voters,  and  Winnebago  (in  which 
is  situated  the  city  of  Rockford,  with  about  fifteen  hundred 
Swedish  voters),  where  one-third  of  the  foreign  born  popu- 
lation was  at  that  time  Scandinavian,  the  Republican 
candidate  received  large  majorities.  A  writer  for  America, 
the  periodical  published  in  English  for  Scandinavian  read- 
ers, claimed  proudly  that  "the  large  Swedish  settlements 
in  Henry,  Rock  Island,  Bureau,  De  Kalb,  Henderson,  War- 
ren, Mercer,  Ford,  Whiteside,  and  other  counties  cast  a 

solid  vote  for  Edwards The    Swedes    were    in 

favor  of  compulsory  education  almost  to  a  man.30  In  the 
city  of  Chicago,  the  County  Superintendent  of  Schools  for 
Cook  County  was  re-elected  by  a  plurality  of  23,000  tho 
he  favored  the  compulsory  law.  The  repeal  of  the  law  of 
1889  was  not  so  prompt  in  Illinois  as  it  was  in  Wisconsin, 
for  it  was  not  until  1893  that  a  new  and  expurgated  com- 
pulsory education  measure  took  its  place.31 

A  close  and  detailed  examination  of  the  legislative 
journals  and  the  statutes  of  the  Northwestern  States  does 
not  reveal  above  a  half-dozen  laws  which  can  be  said  to  be 
due  to  the  leadership  and  direct  influence  of  the  Scandi- 
navians as  such.  On  the  other  hand,  in  the  field  of  general 
legislation  these  men  have  been  indistinguishable  from  the 
native-born  in  ability,  efficiency,  and  uprightness;  the 
gross  and  net  products  of  the  labors  of  those  legislatures 
with  many  Scandinavian  representatives  in  such  states  as 
Minnesota  and  North  Dakota,  are  not  perceptibly  different 

29Laws  of  Illinois,  1889,  Act  of  May  24. 

so America,  V.  201,   (Nov.  20,  1800).     See  also  editorial  in  the  same 
volume,  172-174  (Nov.  13,  1890). 

61Laws  of  Illinois,  1893,  Acts  of  February  17  and  June  19,  1893. 


170  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [400 

from  the  output  of  legislatures  in  which  no  Swede  or  Nor- 
wegian ever  sat,  as  in  Michigan  or  Colorado.  Scarcely  a 
law  has  been  passed  for  the  purpose  of  catering  to  the 
preferences,  or  of  catching  the  vote,  of  the  sons  of  the 
Northlands. 

An  exception  to  this  general  statement  is  the  Minne- 
sota law  of  1883  providing  for  the  establishment  of  a  "pro- 
fessorship of  Scandinavian  language  and  literature  in  the 
State  University,  with  the  same  salary  as  is  paid  in  said 
University  to  other  professors  of  the  same  grade."  The 
man  to  be  chosen  must  be  "some  person  learned  in  the 
Scandinavian  language  and  literature,  and  at  the  same 
time  skilled  and  capable  of  teaching  the  dead  languages  so 
called."32 

The  motives  of  the  makers  of  the  law  were  benevolent 
enough,  and  circumstances  warranted  its  passage,  but 
nothing  could  better  illustrate  the  utter  carelessness  and 
looseness  with  which  American  State  legislators  do  their 
work,  than  this  simple  statute.  It  was  drawn  up  by  a 
distinguished  American  lawyer,  Gordon  E.  Cole  of  St.  Paul 
at  the  request  of  Truls  Paulsen  by  whom  it  was  introduced 
into  the  legislature.33  It  created  a  chair  of  "Scandinavian 
language,"  when  there  is  no  such  language,  living  or  dead ; 
the  professorship  was  established  "in  the  State  Univer- 
sity," when  the  laws  of  the  State  recognize  no  institution 
bearing  such  a  name.  The  Norwegian  who  presented  the 
bill,  the  legislature  ( including  twenty-one  other  Norwegians 
and  Swedes)  which  passed  it,  and  the  Governor  who  signed 
it,  all  showed  the  same  quality  of  ignorance  and  neglect  of 
fact,  law,  and  English.  A  second  law,  undoubtedly  based 
directly  upon  the  first,  even  to  copying  its  confusion  of 
terms,  was  the  act  passed  by  the  legislature  of  North  Da- 
kota in  1891,  creating  a  chair  of  Scandinavian  language 
and  literature  in  the  University  of  North  Dakota.34 

S2The  General  Statutes  of  the  State  of  Minnesota,  1894,  sees.  3908-3909 
(Laws  of  1883,  Chap.  140.) 

S8Nelson,  Scandinavians  in  the  United  States  (ist  ed.),  I,  541-542. 

z*Revised  Codes  of  North  Dakota,  1895,  sec.  887  (Laws  of  1891, 
chap.  60). 


401]  PARTY  CHOICE  AND  POLITICAL  LEADERSHIP  171 

Another  statute  having  still  more  distinct  Scandina- 
vian earmarks  was  passed  by  the  legislature  of  North 
Dakota  in  1893,  providing  for  tribunals  of  conciliation,  to 
be  composed  of  four  commissioners  of  conciliation  elected 
in  each  town,  incorporated  village,  and  city.  The  measure 
was  modelled  in  a  feeble  and  tentative  fashion  after  a 
statute  of  Norway,  where  such  courts  have  been  in  opera- 
tion since  1824,  proving  especially  efficient  in  securing 
amicable  adjustment  of  petty  neighborhood  difficulties.35 
But  the  law  in  North  Dakota  speedily  fell  into  "innocuous 
desuetude,"  in  spite  of  the  enormous  percentage  of  Norwe- 
gians in  that  State;  its  construction  was  defective;  its 
constitutionality  was  questioned;  its  machinery  was  cum- 
bersome and  expensive.  During  its  first  two  years,  many 
communities  failed  to  elect  commissioners,  and  no  serious 
attempt  was  made  to  comply  with  its  provisions;  even  the 
Norwegians  themselves  manifested  no  anxiety  or  haste  to 
make  use  of  this  characteristically  Norwegian  court.  Nor 
did  the  amendment  of  1895,  substituting  for  compulsory 
use  of  the  tribunal  hearings  at  the  request  of  one  party 
and  with  the  consent  of  both  parties,  improve  matters.  One 
Norwegian  attorney  pronounced  the  law  "an  unmitigated 
absurdity  under  present  conditions,"  because  most  suits  in 
the  United  States  arise  out  of  contracts,  debts,  titles,  etc., 
rather  than  out  of  neighborhood  quarrels,  slanders,  and 
the  like. 

In  all  matters  relating  to  temperance  and  temperance 
legislation,  the  Scandinavian  voters  have  almost  invariably 
been  on  the  side  of  restriction  of  the  saloon  and  the  liquor 
traffic.  They  have  supported  prohibition  in  Iowa  and  in 
the  Dakotas,  high  license  in  Minnesota,  and  the  patrol- 
limit  system  in  Minneapolis.36  The  prohibition  State  and 
local  tickets,  especially  in  Minnesota,  and  in  the  Dakotas, 

35Letter  of  Siver  Serumgard,  City  Attorney  of  Devil's  Lake,  N.  D., 
March  24,  1896,  and  various  other  letters. 

a*Minneapolis  Journal,  Jan.  16,  1891.  In  Dakota  "the  reform  was 
asked  for  more  earnestly  by  the  Scandinavian  element  than  by  any  others." 
Ralph,  Our  Great  West,  152. 


172  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [402 

always  have  a  large  proportion  of  Norwegians  and  Swedes 
among  their  nominees.37  The  best  illustration  of  this  sen- 
timent, however,  is  to  be  found  in  the  history  of  prohibition 
in  North  Dakota.  When  the  new  constitution  for  the 
proposed  State  was  made  and  presented  to  the  people  in 
1889,  the  section  which  provided  for  the  absolute  prohibi- 
tion of  both  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  intoxicating 
liquors  was  submitted  separately  to  the  voters.  Thus  the 
prohibition  issue  was  presented  fairly  and  squarely  to  every 
man  in  the  State.  The  constitution  itself  was  carried  by 
a  majority  approximating  twenty  thousand  in  a  total  vote 
of  upwards  of  thirty-five  thousand;  the  prohibitionist  sec- 
tion received  a  majority  of  1159.  Analysis  of  the  vote  by 
counties  makes  it  clear  that  in  every  county  where  the 
Scandinavians  predominated,  with  a  single  exception,  the 
section  was  carried  by  fair  majorities.38  The  question  of 
re-submission  of  this  section  to  the  vote  of  the  people  of 
the  State  came  up  in  1895,  and  was  postponed  indefinitely 
by  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  State  of  North 
Dakota  by  a  vote  of  twenty-six  to  twenty-two,  fourteen  of 
the  sixteen  Scandinavian  members  of  the  House  voting  with 
the  twenty-six.39  This  seems  to  justify  the  opinion  of  the 
Secretary  of  State  of  North  Dakota:  "Nearly  all  Scandi- 
navian members  of  the  legislature  have  invariably  voted 
against  the  resubmission  of  the  question  to  the  people.  .  .  . 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  at  least  three-fourths  of  the  Scandi- 
navian population  of  this  State  favor  prohibition,  and  one- 
half  of  them  are  earnest  advocates  of  the  law."40 

The  only  remaining  question  as  to  the  political  influ- 
ence of  the  Scandinavians  is  the  claim  of  the  Swedes  and 
Norwegians  for  "recognition"  at  the  hands  of  old  parties; 

S7The  ticket  voted  in  Minneapolis  in  1893,  illustrates  this  tendency. 
Among  the  Prohobitionist  nominees  were  two  Scandinavian  presidential 
electors,  the  lieutenant  governor,  secretary  of  state,  county  treasurer,  one 
candidate  for  the  legislature,  and  one  for  the  city  council ! 

^Legislative  Manual  of  North  Dakota,  1889-1890,  170,  compared  with 
the  population  tables  of  the  census  of  1890;  Ralph,  Our  Great  West,  152. 

3glbid.,  1895,  19-20;  Minneapolis  Sunday  Times,  Feb.  10,  1895. 

40Letter  from  C.  M.  Dahl,  March  24,  1896. 


403]  PARTY  CHOICE  AND  POLITICAL  LEADERSHIP  173 

and  the  concessions  which  such  claims  have  extorted. 
From  the  foregoing  accounts,  it  is  evident  that  the  Scan- 
dinavians have  been  ready  in  fitting  themselves  into  the 
political  system  of  the  United  States.  Altho  they  have 
not  been  guilty  of  that  excessive  and  pernicious  activity 
in  the  field  of  public  affairs  which  has  characterized  some 
classes  of  immigrants  settling  by  preference  in  the  great 
cities,  it  must  be  admitted  that  they  have  now  and  then 
appealed  to  race  pride  and  prejudice  and  jealousy,  re- 
marking boundary  lines  and  distinctions  which  should  be 
obliterated.  The  practical  politicians,  on  their  part,  have 
not  hesitated  to  stir  up,  for  party  advantage,  the  sensitive- 
ness of  naturalized  citizens  to  real  or  imaginary  slights 
and  discriminations  against  them  by  "the  other  party." 

The  appeal  of  the  Norwegian  and  Swedish  press  is  not 
infrequently  based  frankly  on  the  essential  sentiment  of 
clannishness :  "Scandinavians  in  Superior  and  other  places 
should  always  support  a  country  man  for  election  to  public 
office,"  and  if  he  is  in  all  ways  worthy,  "we  should  all 
together  rally  around  him,  lay  aside  all  small  considera- 
tions, and  honor  him  with  our  trust  and  esteem."41  Ridi- 
culing  the  narrowness  of  these  "demands,"  another  editor, 
under  the  heading  "From  Norway,  Birthplace  of  Giants," 
suggests  a  full  Republican  ticket  of  Norwegians,  including 
Rasmus  B.  Anderson,  "Republican  pro  tern.,"  and  also  a 
full  Democratic  ticket  of  Norwegians,  including  Rasmus 
B.  Anderson,  "thinking  that  he  may  next  year  be  a  Demo- 
crat again."42  This  trick  of  asserting  their  political  im- 
portance in  the  Northwestern  States  was  very  early 
learned ;  and  so  long  as  party  managers  bid  for  votes  in  the 
tongues  of  the  aliens,  bribing  them  with  nominations  of 
the  foreign-born,  just  so  long  will  these  groups  of  adopted 
citizens  reiterate  and  multiply  their  demands,  just  so  long 
will  they  capitalize  their  voting  power  and  collect  a  gen- 
erous interest  in  the  shape  of  nominations  and  appoint- 
ments. It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  Norwegian  and 

"Editorial  in  Superior  Tidende  (Wisconsin),  Feb.  2,  1898.     See  also 
Vikingen,  Aug.  18.  1888. 

42P.  O.  Stromme  in  Amerika  og  Norden,  Feb.  2,  1898. 


174  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [404 

Swedish  party  papers  in  America  exist  for  the  primary 
purpose  of  forwarding  the  political  interests  of  people  of 
those  nationalities  as  such,  for  they  do  not,  any  more  than 
do  the  partisan  papers  printed  in  English,  but  the  Scan- 
dinavian groups  are  so  large  and  so  definite  that  appeals 
to  them  to  stand  together  as  a  race  for  their  own  interests 
are  inevitable. 

So  early  as  1870,  one  of  the  leading  Norwegian  news- 
papers declared  that  it  was  time  for  the  Norwegians  to  get 
a  Representative  in  Congress  just  as  well  as  other  na- 
tionalities— "ligesaavel  som  andre  nationaliteter."43  The 
editor  suggested  that  the  eight  thousand  Norse  voters  in 
the  southern  Minnesota  district  hold  a  convention  the  day 
before  the  regular  Republican  convention,  and  agree  upon 
a  candidate  for  the  Congressional  nomination:  if  the 
Republicans  refused  to  nominate  him,  put  on  the  screws! 
About  twenty  years  later  this  very  method  was  resorted 
to  in  Xorth  Dakota,  when  the  Scandinavians  of  that  State 
"in  mass  convention  assembled,"  proceeded  to  pass  resolu- 
tions and  to  organize  the  Scandinavian  Union  of  North 
Dakota,  to  secure  for  themselves  "that  share  in  the  gov- 
ernment to  which  their  competency,  their  character  and  nu- 
merical strength,  and  their  rank  as  pioneers  in  all  matters 
of  civilization  entitle  them."  While  declaring  that  it 
believed  that  every  man  should  stand  or  fall  on  his  own 
merits,  the  convention  resolved  "that  we  have  seen  with 
deep  regret  the  disposition  of  a  large  number  of  our  fellow 
citizens  in  some  parts  of  North  Dakota  to  discriminate 
against  us,  because  we  are  Scandinavians,  and  that  an 
unprovoked  war  has  been  waged  against  us."44  The  Hon. 
M.  N.  Johnson,  presiding  officer,  presumptive  beneficiary 
of  the  Union,  an  aspirant  for  nomination  as  Representa- 
tive, stated  the  case  very  frankly:  "The  Scandinavians 

**Fadrelandet  og  Emigranten,  July  10,  1870.  See  also  an  editorial  in 
The  North,  June  12,  1889,  regretting  that  the  question  of  national  pro- 
portions and  groups  should  be  raised  "but  the  principle  having  been 
recognized,  we  consider  it  our  plain  duty  to  see  that  it  is  fairly  and 
squarely  enforced." 

"The  North,  July  10,  1889. 


405]  PARTY  CHOICE  AND  POLITICAL  LEADERSHIP  175 

constitute  a  majority  of  the  Republican  party  in  North 
Dakota.  Under  the  territorial  government  they  have  not 
received  many  official  favors,  but  with  the  opening  of  state- 
hood it  is  proper  that  they  should  have  some  recognition. 
The  Scandinavians  are  not  disposed  to  leave  the  Republi- 
can Party.  They  are  heartily  loyal  to  the  organization  and 

its  principles We  have  the  numerical  strength  to 

demand  and  secure  justice,  and  all  we  ask  is  fair  play.  .  .  . 
We  are  simply  organizing  our  forces  for  united  action  in 
urging  our  just  demands."45  Their  just  demands  consisted 
in  "from  three  to  five  of  the  State  officers,  and  if  they  stand 
together  and  attend  the  primaries,  there  is  no  doubt  but 
that  they  will  get  what  they  ask  for."46 

The  effectiveness  of  this  movement  is  sarcastically 
summed  up  by  a  correspondent  of  The  North,  in  reporting 
the  Republican  convention:  "M.  N.  Johnson's  Scandina- 
vian League  has  evidently  come  out  of  the  small  end  of  the 
horn.  To  be  sure  M.  N.  was  made  the  chairman  of  the 
convention  and  the  dear  Scandinavians  got  honorary 
mention  in  the  resolutions:  but  M.  N.'s  chairmanship  was 
evidently  devoid  of  results  beneficial  to  the  Scandinavians, 
and  as  for  resolutions — talk  is  cheap  !"47 

In  an  editorial  in  English  Skandinaven  discussed 
"Governor  Sheldon's  Mistake"  in  1893 :  "Upwards  of  one- 
third  of  the  population  of  South  Dakota  is  of  Scandinavian 
birth  or  origin,  while  Scandinavians  furnish  not  less  than 
one-half  of  the  Republican  vote  of  the  State.  Governor 
Sheldon  is  apparently  oblivious  to  this  fact;  for  in  making 
his  appointments  he  saw  fit  to  ignore  the  Scandinavian- 
American  citizens  of  South  Dakota.  For  the  sake  of  the 
Republican  party  of  the  State  this  mistake  is  very  much 
to  be  regretted.  The  Scandinavians  are  sensitive  of  their 

*6The  North,  July  10,  1889,  including  translations  from  Fasten  og 
Vest  en  of  Fargo. 

40Ibid.,  letter  pf  Sigurd  Syr. 

47Ibid.,  Aug.  28,  1889.  After  the  fall  election  the  same  paper,  October 
9,  announced :  "The  Scandinavian  Union  thus  seems  barren  of  results.  .  .  . 
Peace  be  with  its  ashes!" — because  it  secured  only  5  senators  and  18 
representatives  in  the  State  legislature. 


176  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [406 

rights  as  American  citizens What  has  the  Re- 
publican party  of  South  Dakota  done  to  Governor  Sheldon 
that  he  should  deal  it  such  a  dangerous  blow?"48  Five 
years  later  the  governor  of  Minnesota  was  accused  of  a 
like  offence  in  that,  on  the  State  boards  appointed  by 
Governor  Merriam,  the  Scandinavians  were  "insufficiently 
represented,"  having  only  five  out  of  one  hundred  mem- 
bers, or  one- twenty-fifth,  when  they  constituted  one-third 
of  the  population  of  the  State.49 

The  pettiness  of  these  squabbles  over  political  "recog- 
nition" and  spoils  is  well  illustrated  by  a  letter  written  in 
Oshkosh,  Wisconsin,  to  a  Minneapolis  newspaper  in  1889: 
"While  our  people  here  number  over  3000,  and  the  Irish 
only  1400,  the  latter  hold  a  still  larger  percentage  of  offices 
than  they  do  in  your  city.  This  year  for  the  first  time  the 
Scandinavians  (or  more  correctly  speaking,  the  Danes) 
have  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  place  on  the  police  force"  !50 

These  insistent  demands  do  not  stop  with  simple  rec- 
ognition of  the  Scandinavian  race :  different  sections  must 
be  satisfied.  The  most  influential  Swedish  paper  of  the 
Northwest  announced  in  1890  that  "what  we  on  the  other 
hand  with  full  propriety  and  without  the  least  danger  of 
transgression  can  demand,  is  a  man  of  Swedish  descent  at 

the  head  of  one  of  our  State  departments To  deny 

them  (Swedes)  this  just  recognition  would  stir  up  bad 
feeling,  and  would  be  looked  upon  as  a  slight,  not  to  say 

contempt Our  brethren,  the   Norwegians,   are  a 

little  more  numerous  in  Minnesota,  than  the  Swedes,  al- 
though not  equaly  good  Republicans.  They,  too,  are  enti- 
tled to  a  place  on  the  State  ticket,  and  for  a  long  time  have 
had  one  [Lieutenant  Governor  Rice]."51 

The  failure  of  the  Scandinavians  to  receive  what  some 
of  them  consider  a  just  and  due  reward,  one  in  proportion 

**Skandinaven,  April  5,  1893. 

**The  North,  Jan.  22,  1890,  quoting  in  translation  from  Fadrelandet 
og  Emigranten. 

*°The  North,  July  I?,  1889. 

"Translated  from  Svenska  Folkets  Tidning  (Minneapolis),  April  20, 
1890. 


407]  PABTY  CHOICE  AND  POLITICAL  LEADERSHIP  177 

to  their  numbers  and  their  devotion  to  one  party,  is  not  to 
be  attributed  wholly  to  the  hardness  of  heart  of  the  party 
leaders,  nor  to  their  shortsightedness.  Nor  can  it  be  fairly 
charged  to  any  strong  dislike  of  Swedes,  Norwegians,  and 
Danes  for  each  other :  the  Swedes,  for  example,  have  never 
bolted  a  ticket  because  it  happened  to  be  headed  by  a 
Norwegian.52  In  addition  to  the  extension  of  religious 
antagonism  into  politics,  "there  is  still  another  reason  for 
the  limited  success  of  the  Scandinavians  in  the  political 
field,  and  that  is  their  natural  apathy  [antipathy?]  to 
following  a  leader.  Each  one  considers  himself  competent 
to  work  on  his  own  hook.  To  follow  a  leader  seems  incom- 
patible with  their  ideas  of  liberty.  Yet  without  union  and 

without  leaders,  victory  is  impossible 'Everybody 

for  himself,  and  the  Devil  for  the  hindmost'  is  the  law 
governing  American  life,  and  this  the  Irish  have  learned, 
while  the  Scandinavian  is  generally  waiting  for  someone 
to  come  along  and  offer  something  with  the  polite  'if  you 
please.'  But  he  has  to  wait."53 

The  Scandinavian  press,  in  complaining  of  "a  failure 
to  get  a  due  share  of  offices,"  in  declaring  that  Norwegians 
are  "entitled  to  ten  seats"  in  the  Wisconsin  legislature 
when  they  happen  to  have  but  three,  or  in  insinuating  that 
they  have  never  been  fittingly  recognized  in  Iowa,  resorts 
to  political  claptrap,  often  quite  unworthy  of  the  journal 
printing  it.  The  facts  so  easily  forgotten  are  that  the 
counties  and  legislative  districts  in  which  the  Scandina- 
vians are  a  ruling  majority  are  comparatively  few,  while 
the  districts  in  which  they  are  an  influential  minority  are 
very  many.54  The  system  of  representation  in  the  United 

52Boyeson,  "The  Scandinavians  in  the  United  States,"  North  American 
Review,  CLV,  531;  Rock  ford  Register  (111.),  Sept.  16,  1889. 

MThe  North,  Aug.  14,  1889,  translating  from  Skandinavia  (Worcester. 
Mass.) 

^Billed  Magazin,  I,  139  (1869)  ;  Skandinaven,  Feb.  5, 1896— an  edito- 
rial printed,  like  many  others,  in  English  and  evidently  designed  for  the 
consumption  of  editors  of  English  papers.  It  is  also  evident  that  Skandi- 
naven's  readers  understood  English.  Soderstrom,  Minneapolis  Minnen,  132, 
gives  a  fairly  complete  list  of  all  the  Swedes,  Norwegians,  and  Danes 


178  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [408 

States  is  not  based  on  any  racial  divisions  or  class  distinc- 
tions, and  not  until  some  scheme  of  minority  representa- 
tion is  adopted  can  any  foreign  element  get  its  "share"  of 
the  political  plums.  It  would  be  hard  to  suggest  a  more 
dangerous  and  disrupting  experiment,  in  these  decades 
when  aliens  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands,  not  to  say  mil- 
lions, enter  the  country  and  are  incorporated  into  the  body 
politic,  than  to  attempt  to  "recognize"  the  various  alien 
factors  in  complex  public  affairs,  even  if  they  were  all  as 
adaptable  as  the  men  from  the  Northlands.  Nothing 
would  do  more,  for  example,  to  develop  the  latent  religious 
and  racial  antipathies  between  the  Scandinavians  and  the 
Irish.  The  fundamental  assumption,  therefore,  which  lies 
back  of  all  claims  for  "recognition"  of  Swedish-Americans, 
or  other  hyphenated  Americans,  as  such,  savors  of  ward 
politics  and  the  machine,  rather  than  of  political  equity  or 
right,  and  just  so  far  as  it  does  this  it  menaces  social  and 
political  safety. 

elected  or  appointed  to  city,  state  or  county  office,  even  including  police- 
men. For  similar  list  for  a  rural  county,  see  Tew,  Illustrated  History  and 
Descriptive  and  Biographical  Review  of  Kandiyohi  County,  Minnesota 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

CONCLUSION 

The  meaning  of  the  word  American  as  applied  to  the 
inhabitants  of  the  United  States,  has  undergone  a  great 
change  as  they  have  multiplied  fifteenfold  in  numbers  and 
many  times  in  varieties  of  nationalities  in  the  course  of  a 
century.  In  that  progress  the  Norwegians,  Swedes,  and 
Danes  have  played  a  conspicuous  and  constructive  part. 
As  late  as  1840,  American  ordinarily  meant  a  white  person 
of  English  descent,  born  in  America  or  resident  in  the 
United  States  long  enough  to  understand  and  accept  as 
fundamental  and  vital  certain  political  and  social  ideals 
and  ideas.  That  simple  and  definite  significance  applies 
no  more.  The  American  race  is  already  alarmingly  com- 
plex, tho  the  old  type  has  been  more  closely  adhered  to 
than  would  be  expected  from  an  enumeration  of  the  ele- 
ments which  have  gone  into  the  crucible. 

In  temperament,  early  training,  and  ideals,  the  Scan- 
dinavians more  nearly  approach  the  American  type  than 
any  other  class  of  immigrants,  except  those  from  Great 
Britain.  In  such  features  as  adaptability  and  loyalty 
without  reservation,  no  exceptions  need  be  made.  They 
have  not  come  to  the  New  World  merely  to  get  away  from 
Europe,  nor  to  escape  Siberian  exile  or  an  Abyssinian 
war;  nor  has  their  motive  been  one  of  ordinary  adventure- 
seeking.  Theirs  has  been  a  determined  purpose  and  a 
serious  resolve  to  "arrive"  somewhere  in  America,  and, 
finding  their  places,  to  fill  them  with  honorable  endeavor 
and  steady  ambition.  They  have  come  as  families,  or  with 
a  wholesome  desire  to  establish  families  for  themselves. 
Most  of  them  have  fallen  considerably  below  the  best  types 
of  their  own  nationalities;  their  conservatism  has  some- 
times been  of  the  degenerate  sort  bordering  on  stolidity; 
their  independence  and  individualism  has  come  painfully 
near  stubbornness;  and  their  shrewdness  has  not  infre- 

179 


180  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [410 

quently  developed  into  insincerity.  They  have  now  and 
then  manifested  a  clannishness  which  led  them  into  dis- 
agreeable, if  temporary,  complications. 

The  fact  that  this  characteristic  or  that  tendency 
exists  in  an  immigrant  or  alien  element,  should  not  cause 
disturbance  of  mind  to  the  good  citizen,  the  statesman,  or 
the  scholar ;  the  real  question  is  whether  this  characteristic 
or  tendency  is  growing  stronger  or  disappearing  more  or 
less  rapidly.  For  example,  is  the  stolidity  of  a  group  deep- 
ening, or  does  mental  agility  develop  in  the  second  and 
third  generation?  That  the  Scandinavians  have  readily 
outgrown  much  of  their  clannishness,  perceptibly  quick- 
ened their  energies  in  the  new  environment,  and  developed 
notably  in  social,  commercial,  and  political  efficiency  can- 
not be  seriously  questioned  by  any  one  who  studies  their 
activities  as  a  whole,  or  who  has  observed  them  for  two 
generations. 

The  immigrants  from  the  North  are  decently  educated, 
able-bodied,  law-abiding  men  and  women,  not  illiterates, 
paupers,  or  criminals.  They  are  not  here  as  exiles  from 
home  and  country  for  a  few  years,  after  which  they  pur- 
pose to  return  to  their  native  lands,  there  to  enjoy  a  cheap 
and  narrow  idleness.  They  are  in  the  United  States  as 
citizens,  to  become  thoroly  and  loyally  American.  Their 
ingrained  habits  of  industry  and  economy,  coupled  with  a 
natural  conservatism  and  shrewdness,  have  given  them 
material  success  and  contributed  in  large  measure  to  the 
prosperity  of  the  States  in  which  they  have  made  their 
settlements.  They  have  ever  striven  for  homes,  and  while 
some  of  them  have  been  content  for  a  few  years  to  serve 
others,  the  proletariat  has  not  been  largely  recruited  from 
them.  Mere  wage-earning  has  not  been  a  permanent  con- 
dition, but  a  stepping  stone  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  of 
independence.  In  politics  and  in  war  they  have  evidenced 
their  ability  to  stand  side  by  side  with  the  native-born  of 
New  England,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and  Indiana,  and,  with 
real  faithfulness  and  efficiency  to  fill  such  places,  low  or 
high,  as  shall  be  opened  to  them. 


411]  CONCLUSION  181 

Tho  as  Swedes,  Norwegians,  and  Danes  they  will 
gradually  disappear,  becoming  indistinguishable  from 
other  Americans,  their  fundamental  characteristics  cannot 
be  blotted  out  even  in  the  third  and  fourth  generation. 
Men  do  not  change  so  readily,  even  under  the  most  favor- 
able conditions.  Fresh  additions  from  Europe  will  con- 
tinue to  re-enforce  the  old  stock;  but  they  too  will  be 
sturdy,  independent,  and  Protestant.  It  is  not  too  much 
to  expect  that  their  virtues  of  intelligence,  patience,  per- 
sistence, and  thrift,  will  be  preserved  as  they  mingle  in  the 
current  of  national  life.  The  demand  for  these  qualities 
will  be  steady ;  the  supply  on  the  part  of  the  Scandinavians 
will  not  be  readily  exhausted.  The  intermarriage  and 
amalgamation  of  two  peoples  so  closely  allied  as  the 
Scandinavians  and  Americans  connotes  much  of  promise 
and  little  of  danger. 

Several  forces  will  continue  to  operate  in  the  future, 
as  they  have  in  the  past,  against  perpetuating  any  distinct- 
ively Scandinavian  influence  on  the  population  or  institu- 
tions of  the  United  States.  All  three  Northern  peoples  are 
particuarly  free  from  other  than  traditional  ties  and  senti- 
mental attachments  binding  them  to  the  mother  countries. 
No  one  of  the  three  kingdoms  is  great  or  powerful  in  the 
affairs  of  Europe;  the  heroes  of  the  past,  like  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  are  too  far  away  in  time  to  affect  powerfully 
the  imaginations  of  today.  Patriotism  with  them  in  the 
Old  World  is  quite  as  much  a  sentiment  or  love  for  the 
parish  or  the  homestead  as  it  is  a  fierce  and  militant  pas- 
sion for  the  power  and  leadership  of  the  nation.  No 
dramatic  outbursts  of  national  feeling,  or  antagonisms  to 
ancient  enemies,  will  rekindle  old  enthusiams  in  the  Amer- 
ican Scandinavians.  Even  the  prospect  of  war  between  i 
Norway  and  Sweden,  when  the  former  dissolved  the  Dual 
Monarchy,  did  not  profoundly  stir  the  Swedes  or  Norwe- 
gians in  the  Northwest;  and  had  war  broken  out  all  the  ' 
recruits  from  America  could  probably  have  been  shipped 
across  the  Atlantic  in  one  voyage  of  a  small  steamship. 


182  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [412 

Furthermore,  no  great  and  permanent  causes  center- 
ing in  Europe  continually  demand  their  active  and  intense 
sympathy  and  financial  aid,  knitting  them  closely  together, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  Irish  or  the  Russians.  The  Scandi- 
navian contributions  to  European  causes  have  been  filial 
and  fraternal,  never  political,  never  revolutionary,  never 
such  as  to  raise  a  national  issue  in  America.  Their  church 
organizations,  decentralized,  centrifugal  rather  than  cen- 
tripetal, recognizing  no  unity  under  a  temporal  head,  can- 
not be  turned  into  a  keen,  insinuating  political  weapon. 
They  have  no  secret  societies  ramifying  through  their 
settlements,  no  Mafias,  "Molly  Maguires,"  anarchist  lodges, 
or  other  badges  of  ancient  servitude  or  foreign  hates. 

The  Scandinavians,  knowing  the  price  of  American 
citizenship,  have  paid  it  ungrudgingly,  and  are  proud  of 
the  possession  of  the  high  prerogatives  and  privileges 
conferred.  They  fit  readily  into  places  among  the  best 
and  most  serviceable  of  the  nation's  citizens;  without  long 
hammering  or  costly  chiseling  they  give  strength  and  sta- 
bility, if  not  beauty  and  the  delicate  refinements  of  culture, 
to  the  social  and  economic  structure  of  the  United  States. 

For  all  these  reasons  the  difficulties  of  the  United 
States  in  adjusting  the  life  and  ideals  and  institutions  of 
the  nation  to  the  presence  of  foreigners  are  reduced  in  the 
case  of  the  Scandinavians  to  a  minimum.  The  Swedes, 
Norwegians,  and  Danes  are  not  likely  to  furnish  great 
leaders,  but  they  will  be  in  the  front  rank  of  those  who 
follow  with  sturdy  intelligence  and  conscience,  striving  to 
make  the  land  of  their  adoption  strong  and  prosperous, — • 
"a  blessing  to  the  common  man,"  according  to  the  original 
vision  of  America  seen  by  Sweden's  great  king  Gustavus 
Adolphus.  They  will  be  builders,  not  destroyers;  their 
greatest  service  will  be  as  a  mighty,  silent,  steadying  influ- 
ence, re-enforcing  those  high  qualities  which  are  sometimes 
called  Puritan,  sometimes  American,  but  which  in  any  case 
make  for  local  and  national  peace,  progress,  and  righteous- 
ness. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

CRITICAL  ESSAY  ON  MATERIALS  AND  AUTHORITIES 

The  term  bibliography  does  not  accurately  or  fully 
describe  the  materials  upon  which  this  study  of  the  Scan- 
dinavians in  the  Northwest  is  based.  To  the  printed 
sources  of  all  sorts, — official  reports  of  European  and 
American  governments,  autobiographies,  travels,  and  the 
like — and  to  a  wide  range  of  secondary  works,  there  must 
be  added  much  matter  relating  to  the  subject  gathered  by 
means  of  personal  interviews,  correspondence,  and  obser- 
vations extending  over  a  series  of  years.  The  Scandinavian 
press  is  an  inexhaustible  mine  of  source  material;  its 
information,  in  nuggets,  flakes,  and  fine  particles,  must  be 
sought  for  diligently,  extracted,  refined,  and  shaped;  but 
it  is  the  purest  source  material,  nevertheless,  comprising 
brief  autobiographies,  letters,  personal  opinions,  descrip- 
tion of  surroundings  and  movements,  and  contributions  to 
current  discussion  in  politics,  religion,  and  education.  The 
county  and  local  histories  which  multiplied  rapidly  be- 
tween 1880  and  1895,  and  which  have  not  yet  ceased  to 
appear,  are  not  far  from  the  borderland  of  source  material. 
Their  sketches  of  men  and  women  and  settlements,  tho 
for  the  most  part  of  a  crude,  innocent,  laudatory  type 
based  upon  brief  personal  interviews  by  canvassers  and 
elaborated  according  to  the  varying  size  of  the  subscrip- 
tions of  individuals,  are  almost  indispensable  for  certain 
statistical  purposes. 

The  customary  distinction  between  source  material 
and  secondary  material  is  often  hard  to  maintain,  so  recent 
is  the  Scandinavian  immigration,  and  so  numerous  are  the 
first-hand  and  second-hand  accounts  by  contemporaries 
participating  in  or  observing  the  phenomena  under  con- 
sideration. The  Northern  peoples  settling  in  the  United 

183 


184  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [414 

States  have  had  no  William  Bradford  for  a  historian,  but 
the  work  of  Norelius  and  Mattson  is  in  a  class  similar  to 
that  of  Plimouth  Plantation. 

The  best  bibliography  of  immigration  in  general  is 
that  published  by  the  Library  of  Congress,  A.  P.  C.  Griffin 
(compiler),  A  List  of  Books  (with  References  to  Period- 
icals) on  Immigration  (3rd  issue,  with  additions,  1907), 
but  this  is  not  complete,  especially  as  relating  to  Scandina- 
vian immigration.  It  omits  all  state  documents,  but  is 
strong  in  its  list  of  Congressional  and  executive  docu- 
ments. For  the  Scandinavian  movement,  the  bibliography 
in  O.  N.  Nelson  (editor),  History  of  the  Scandinavians 
and  Successful  Scandinavians  in  the  United  States  (2nd 
ed.,  I,  265-295),  is  the  most  useful,  though  it  is  unfortu- 
nately arranged  on  a  strictly  chronological  basis  in  two 
parts.  It  is,  however,  far  from  complete,  omitting  practic- 
ally all  Federal  and  State  publications,  and  all  period- 
icals save  for  specific  mention  of  certain  articles.  In  the 
field  of  periodicals,  is  Bibliografi;  Svensk-Amerikansk  Pe- 
riodisk  Literatur  (being  No.  8,  KungL  Bibliothekets  Hand- 
lingar,  Stockholm,  1886). 

In  a  general  way,  the  following  bibliography  includes 
only  those  books,  pamphlets,  periodicals,  ancf  newspapers 
which  were  directly  used  in  the  preparation  of  this  volume. 
In  the  case  of  foreign  publications,  the  place  as  well  as  the 
date  of  publication  is  usually  given. 

DOCUMENTARY   SOURCES 

1.     Official  Publications  of  the  United  States. 

Five  series  of  reports  published  by  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment are  of  very  great  importance  in  the  study  of 
immigration,  both  for  their  scope  and  their  accuracy :  the 
Reports  of  the  censuses  from  1850  to  1910;  the  Annual 
Statistical  Abstracts  (36  vols.,  1879-1913) ;  Annual  Re- 
ports of  the  Commissioner-general  of  Immigration  (17 
vols.,  1891-1909) ;  Reports  from  the  Consuls  of  the  United 
States  (notably  vol.  22,  No.  76,  1887),  particularly  those 
from  the  consuls  in  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark;  and 


415]  ESSAY  ON  MATERIALS  AND  AUTHORITIES  185 

Special  Consular  Reports  (particularly  vol.  30,  1904). 
The  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission  (especially  vols. 
XV.  (1901)  and  XIX  (1902),  contains  a  vast  amount  of 
recent,  complete,  and  diversified  material  in  the  testimony 
taken  by  the  Commission  and  in  the  well-digested  reports 
prepared  by  experts  like  John  R.  Commons.  The  Bureau 
of  Statistics  of  the  Treasury  Department,  Immigration 
into  the  United  States,  showing  number,  nationality,  sex, 
age,  destination  (etc.)  from  1820-1903  (in  Monthly  Sum- 
mary of  Commerce  and  Finance,  June,  1903),  gives  general 
tables  and  a  review  in  convenient  form. 

The  following  reports  of  committees  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  and  of  the  Senate  include  usually  the 
"hearings"  of  the  committees,  if  any  have  been  held :  Re- 
port from  the  Committee  on  Immigration  and  Naturaliza- 
tion, 51  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  H.  R.  No.  3472  (Owen  Report, 
1891) ;  52  Cong.,  1  Sess.,  H.  R.  No.  2090  (Stump  Report, 
1892) ;  Report  of  the  Committee  on  Immigration,  52  Cong., 
2  Sess.,  S.  R.  No.  1333  (Chandler  Report,  1893)  ;  54  Cong., 
1  Sess.,  S.  R.  No.  290  (Lodge  Report,  1896) ;  57  Cong.,  2 
Sess.,  S.  Doc.  No.  62  (Penrose  Report,  1902).  Special 
reports  of  importance  are:  Report  of  the  Immigration 
Investigating  Commission  (1895)  ;  Edward  Young,  Chief 
of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics,  Special  Report  on  Immigra- 
tion, (42  Cong.,  1  Sess.,  H.  Mis.  Doc.  No.  19,  (1871) ;  and 
C.  C.  Andrews,  Report  made  to  the  Department  of  State 
on  the  Conditions  of  the  Industrial  Classes  in  Sweden  and 
Norway  (1874). 

In  a  class  by  itself  is  the  recent  elaborate  Report  of 
the  Immigration  Commission,  S.  Docs.,  61  Cong.,  2-3  Sess. 
(Dillingham  Report,  1910-1911),  43  vols.,  of  which  vols.  1 
and  2  (Abstract),  4,  34,  and  36  are  specially  important  for 
this  study.  The  Report  is  by  far  the  most  scientific, 
thorough-going,  and  detailed  study  of  the  nature,  extent, 
distribution  and  results  of  immigration  to  the  United 
States,  and  to  a  few  other  countries  like  Canada,  Australia, 
and  Brazil,  which  has  yet  been  produced. 


186  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [416 

Various  volumes  of  the  United  States  Statutes  at 
Large  and  the  Congressional  Directories  have  also  some 
material. 

2.  Official  Reports  of  Scandinavian  countries. 

DENMARK  :  annual  volumes  of  Statistisk  Aarbog. 

NORWAY:  annual  volumes  of  Norges  Officielle  Statis- 
tik  (1870-1913),  of  Norges  Land  og  Folk  (1885-1906),  and 
of  Meddelelser  fra  det  Statistwke  Centralbureau  (1883- 
1899) ;  and  Oversigt  over  Kongeriget  Norges  civile,  geist- 
lige  og  judicielle  Inddeling  (1893). 

SWEDEN  :  annual  issues  of  Bidrag  till  Sveriges  offici- 
ella  statistik  (1857-1913),  covering  a  wide  range  of  topics. 
Gustav  Sundbarg  (editor),  Sweden,  Its  People  and  Its 
Industry  (1904),  is  a  valuable  "historical  and  statistical 
handbook  published  by  the  order  of  the  Government"  of 
Sweden,  in  Swedish,  English,  and  French. 

NORWAY, — Official  Publication  for  the  Paris  Exhibi- 
tion, 1900  (Christiania,  1900)  is  a  companion  volume  to 
that  for  Sweden  just  mentioned. 

3.  Official  Publications  of  Grreat  Britain. 

The  Report  of  the  Board  of  Trade  on  Alien  Immigra- 
tion (into  the  United  States)  (London,  1893)  is  at  once 
able,  comprehensive,  judicious. 

4.  Official  Publications  of  the  Northwestern  States. 
The  various  annual  or  biennial  legislative  handbooks 

contain  useful  biographies  and  statistics,  especially  the 
volumes  since  1880 :  'The  Legislative  Manual  of  the  State 
of  Minnesota;  Wisconsin  Blue  Book;  The  Legislative  Man- 
ual of  North  Dakota;  South  Dakota  Political  Handbook 
and  Official  and  Legislative  Manual  (sometimes  entitled 
South  Dakota  Legislative,  Executive,  and  Judicial  Direc- 
tory). Of  the  great  number  and  variety  of  official  State 
documents  and  reports,  those  most  directly  useful  for  this 
study  are  the  volumes  of  statistics  of  Wisconsin,  Illinois, 
Iowa,  Minnesota,  North  Dakota,  and  South  Dakota;  those 
relating  to  the  State  censuses,  State  institutions  (a  board 


417]  ESSAY  ON  MATERIALS  AND  AUTHORITIES  187 

of  control  as  in  Wisconsin  and  Iowa,  or  a  board  of  chari- 
ties and  corrections,  for  certain  institutions,  in  Minnesota 
and  South  Dakota),  commissioners  or  boards  of  immigra- 
tion, and  boards  of  health.  Keports  of  officers  in  charge  of 
immigration  matters  are  in  State  documents  as  follows: 
Wisconsin,  1853,  1854,  1869-1875,  1880-1882,  1884,  1886, 
1897,  1900;  Iowa,  1872;  Minnesota,  1867-1872.  The  pub- 
lications of  certain  institutions  chiefly  supported  by  the 
States,  like  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society,  the  State 
Historical  Society  of  Iowa,  especially  vol.  Ill  (1905),  and 
the  Minnesota  Historical  Society,  really  fall  into  this  class 
of  sources. 

GENERAL  WORKS 

The  classical  work  on  the  broad  subject  of  immigra- 
tion, notable  alike  for  the  breadth  and  penetration  of  its 
views,  is  Richmond  Mayo-Smith,  Emigration  and  Immigra- 
tion: a  Study  in  Social  Science  (1890).  Two  other  works 
by  the  same  authority,  are :  Immigration  and  the  Foreign- 
Born  Population  (in  vol.  Ill  of  the  Publications  of  the 
American  Statistical  Assn.,  1893),  and  Statistics  and  So- 
ciology (1895).  The  Publications  of  the  Immigration  Re- 
striction League  take  a  wide  range  in  63  pamphlets  (1894- 
1914).  Next  to  these  in  importance  come:  Prescott  F. 
Hall,  Immigration  and  its  Effects  upon  the  United  States 
(1906),  an  excellent  and  compact  study,  somewhat  marred 
by  the  bias  of  its  author,  who  is  secretary  of  the  Restric- 
tion League;  J.  R.  Commons,  Races  and  Immigrants  in 
America  (1907),  a  popular  rather  than  profound  state- 
ment, but  the  fresh  work  of  a  careful  scholar ;  E.  A.  Steiner, 
On  the  Trail  of  the  Immigrant  (1906)  ;  S.  McLanahan,  Our 
People  of  Foreign  Speech  .  .  .  with  particular  reference 
to  religious  work  among  them  (1904). 

A  group  of  more  recent  works  by  competent  scholars 
combining  qualities  of  penetration  and  popular  presenta- 
tion in  satisfying  proportions  are :  H.  P.  Fairchild,  Immi- 
gration: a  World  Movement  and  its  American  Significance 
(1913)  ;  J.  W.  Jenks  and  W.  J.  Lauck,  The  Immigration 
Problem  (3d  ed.  revised  and  enlarged,  1913),  by  two  men 


188  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [418 

intimately  connected  with  the  making  of  the  Dillingham 
Keport;  E.  A.  Boss,  The  Old  World  in  the  New:  The  sig- 
nificance of  past  and  present  immigration  to  the  American 
people  (1914) ;  especially  ch.  IV;  F.  J.  Warne,  The  Immi- 
grant Invasion  (1913),  ch.  XII. 

Of  less  direct  bearing,  but  valuable :  W.  J.  Bromwell, 
History  of  Immigration  to  the  United  States  (1856) ;  F.  L. 
Dingley,  European  Immigration  (1890) ;  F.  Kapp,  Immi- 
gration and  the  Commissioners  of  Immigration  of  the 
State  of  New  York  (1870) ;  B.  M.  LaFollette  (editor),  The 
Making  of  America,  vols.  II,  and  VIII  (1906) ;  F.  A. 
Walker,  Discussions  in  Economics  and  Statistics,  vol.  II 
(1899). 

The  great  mass  of  periodical  literature  is  listed  in 
Griffin's  bibliography,  already  cited.  Including  general 
and  special  articles  and  some  speeches  in  the  Congressional 
Record,  nearly  700  titles  are  arranged  chronologically. 
The  list  is  incomplete,  omitting  several  articles,  dealing 
particularly  with  the  Scandinavians. 

SPECIAL   HISTORIES 

Three  works  deal  with  the  history  of  the  Scandinavian 
immigration  in  a  large-spirited,  comprehensive  way,  and 
by  these  characteristics  stand  out  from  the  mass  of  less 
important  works.  O.  N.  Nelson  (compiler  and  editor), 
History  of  the  Scandinavians  and  Successful  Scandina- 
vians in  the  United  States  (2  vols.,  2nd  revised  ed.,  1904), 
is  made  up  of  specially  prepared  articles,  reprinted  arti- 
cles, statistical  tables,  a  bibliography,  and  some  two  hun- 
dred and  eighty  biographies  of  men  in  Minnesota,  Wiscon- 
sin and  Iowa.  It  is  very  uneven,  and  on  almost  every  page 
betrays  at  once  the  zeal,  honesty,  and  the  inadequate  train- 
ing of  the  authors  and  the  compiler.  It  might  almost  be 
characterized  as  a  cyclopedia  of  the  Scandinavians  in 
America.  E.  Norelius,  De  Svenska  Luterska  Forsamlin- 
garnas  och  Svenskarnes  Historia  i  Amerika  (1890),  while 
nominally  a  church  history  is  in  reality  an  excellent  history 
of  Swedish  settlement ;  George  T.  Flom,  A  History  of  Nor- 
wegian Immigration  to  the  United  States  from  the  Earliest 


419]  ESSAY  ON  MATERIALS  AND  AUTHORITIES  189 

Beginning  down  to  the  Year  1848  ( 1909 ) ,  made  up  in  part 
of  articles  mentioned  elsewhere,  is  a  painstaking,  exhaust- 
ive, accurate  account  of  Norwegian  immigration  of  that 
period  into  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  and  Illinois. 

Other  books  dealing  with  special  groups  or  States  or 
localities  are :  Axel  A.  Ahlroth,  Svenskarne  i  Minnesota — 
Historiska  Anteckningar  (Westervik,  1891)  ;  Rasmus  B. 
Anderson,  The  First  Chapter  of  Norwegian  Immigration, 
1821-1840,  a  prolix,  padded,  but  valuable  volume ;  and  Tale 
ved  Femtiaarsfesten  for  den  Norske  Udvandring  til  Amer- 
ika  (1875) ;  John  H.  Bille,  A  History  of  the  Danes  in 
America  (Trans.  Wis.  Acad.  of  Sciences,  Arts,  and  Letters, 
XI,  1896),  a  short  pamphlet;  Tancred  Boissy,  Svenska 
Nationaliteten  i  Forenta  Staterna  (Goteborg,  1882),  a  re- 
print of  correspondence  in  Sydsvenska  Dagbl.  Snallposten ; 
J.  W.  C.  Dietrich  son,  Reise  blandt  de  Norske  Emigranter  i 
"de  forenede  Nordamerikanske  Fristater"  (Stavanger 
1846,  and  reprinted  Madison,  1896),  a  historical  and  con- 
temporary description  of  the  early  settlements,  and  Nogle 
Ord  fra  Pnedikestolen  i  Amerika  og  Norge  (1851)  ;  Robert 
Gronberger,  Svenskarne  i  St.  Croiw-Dalen,  Minnesota 
(1879),  an  early  and  reliable  piece  of  work;  George 
Kseding,  Rockfords  Svenskar — Historiska  Anteckningar 
(1885)  ;  Knud  Langeland,  Nordmcendene  i  Amerika — No- 
gle  Optegnelser  om  de  Norskes  Udvandring  til  Amerika 
(1889), — one  of  the  very  best  of  the  books  on  the  Norwe- 
gians; C.  F.  Peterson  (see  also  Eric  Johnson),  Sverige  i 
Amerika — Kulturhistoriska  och  Biografiska  Teckningar 
(1898)  ;  Johan  Schroeder,  Skandinaverne  i  de  Forenede 
Stater  og  Canada,  mcd  Indberetninger  og  Oplysninger  fra 
200  Skandinaviske  Settlementcr  (1867), — full  of  the  most 
valuable  information  about  life  and  conditions  in  the 
Northwest;  Ole  Rynning,  Sandfardig  Beretning  om  Amer- 
ika til  Oplysning  og  Nytte  for  Bonde  og  Menigmand 
(Christiania,  1838), — a  remarkably  clear,  compact,  and 
influential  pamphlet;  Carl  Sundbeck,  Svenskarna  i  Amer- 
ika, Deras  Land,  Antal,  och  Kolonien  (Stockholm,  1900)  ; 
Alfred  &6deTstT6m,Minneapolis  Minnen  (1899),  an  excel- 
lent, extensive,  newspaper-like  description  of  the  life  and 


190  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [420 

activities  of  the  Scandinavians  in  that  half-Norse  city ;  Al- 
fred Stromberg,  Minnen  af  Minneapolis  (1902) ;  Under- 
retning  om  Amerika,  fornemmeligen  de  Stater  hvori  udvan- 

drede  Nornwend  have  nedsat  sig, udgivne  af  X 

(Skien,  1843) ;  M.  Ulvestad,  Norm&ndene  i  Amerika,  deres 
Historic  og  Record  (1907) ;  P.  S.  Vig,  Danske  i  Amerika 
(1900;  Jobs.  B.  Wist,  Den  norske  Indvandring  til  1850,  og 
Skandinaveme  i  Amerikas  Politik  (1884?), — a  small  but 
suggestive  pamphlet. 

On  the  Bishop  Hill  colony,  the  best  authorities  are: 
Michael  A.  Mikkelsen,  The  Bishop  Hill  Colony,  a  religious 
communistic  Settlement  in  Henry  County,  Illinois  (Johns 
Hopkins  University  Studies,  X,  No.  1,  1892) — the  most 
convenient  work  in  English,  based  almost  entirely  on  Nore- 
lius,  and  on  Johnson  and  Peterson,  Si:enskarnc  i  Illinois, 
Johnson  being  a  son  of  the  founder,  Eric  Janson;  Emil 
Herlenius,  Erik-Jansismens  Historia,  ett  Bidrag  till  Kdn- 
nedomen  om  det  Svenska  Sektvasendet  ( Jonkoping,  1900) ; 
History  of  Henry  County,  Illinois  (1877)  ;  Erick  Jansis- 
men  i  Nord  Amerika  (Gefle,  1845)  ;  Hiram  Bigelow,  The 
Bishop  Hill  Colony  (No.  7  of  the  Publications  of  the  Illi- 
nois State  Historical  Library,  1902)  ;  W.  A.  Hinds,  Ameri- 
can Communities  (1902). 

SELECT  ARTICLES  IN  PERIODICALS 

Articles  in  periodicals :  R.  B.  Anderson,  "Norwegian 
Immigration,"  "The  Coming  of  the  Danes,"  "Icelandic 
Immigration,"  Chicago  Record  Herald  (June  19,  26,  July 
24,  Aug.  21,  1901) ;  K.  C.  Babcock,  "The  Scandinavians  in 
the  Northwest,"  Forum,  XIV  (1892),  "The  Scandinavian 
Contingent,"  Atlantic,  LXVII  (1896),  "The  Scandinavian 
Element  in  American  Population",  American  Historical 
Review,  XVI  (1911)  ;  H.  H.  Boyesen,  "Norse  Ameri- 
cans," The  American.  I  (1880),  "The  Scandinavians 
in  the  United  States,"  North  American  Review,  CLV 
1892)  ;  G.  T.  Flam,  "The  Scandinavian  Factor  in 
the  American  Population,"  Iowa  Journal  of  History  and 
Politics,  III  (1905),  and  (in  Norwegian  translation)  in 
Vor  Tid,  I  (1905)  ;  A.  H.  Hyde,  "The  Foreign  Element  in 


421]  ESSAY  ON  MATERIALS  AND  AUTHORITIES  191 

American  Civilization,"  Popular  Science  Mo.,  LII  (1898)  ; 
Luth  Jaeger,  "The  Scandinavian  Element  in  the  United 
States,"  The  North,  June,  1889, — with  many  other  similar 
discussions  in  the  same  weekly  paper,  all  of  them  excel- 
lent; Kristofer  Janson,  "Norsemen  in  the  United  States," 
Cosmopolitan,  IX  (1890)  ;  Axel  Jarlson,  "A  Swedish  Em- 
igrant's Story,"  Independent,  LV  (1903) ;  F.  H.  B.  Mac- 
Dowell,  "The  Newer  Scandinavia — a  Sketch  of  the  Growth 
and  Progress  of  the  Scandinavian  Races  in  America," 
Scandinavia,  III  (1884)  ;  J.  A.  Ottesen,  "Bidrag  til  vore 
Settlementers  og  Menigheders  Historic,"  Amerika  (Apr. 
to  Nov.,  1894), — an  elaborate  series  of  articles,  full  of 
genealogical  and  community  details;  E.  A.  Ross,  "Scandi- 
navians in  America,"  Century,  LXXXVIII  (1914)  ;  Geo. 
T.  Rygh,  "The  Scandinavian  Americans,"  The  Literary 
Northwest,  II  (1893) ;  Albert  Shaw,  "The  Scandinavians 
in  the  United  States,"  Chautauquan,  VIII  (1887). 

State  and  Local  Histories 

The  number  of  historical  books  and  pamphlets  relating 
to  the  States,  counties,  cities,  and  settlements  in  the  North- 
west is  very  great,  and  for  the  larger  part,  unsatisfactory 
but  indispensable.  They  have  usually  been  written  by 
ambitious  but  untrained  persons,  either  as  commercial 
ventures,  advertising  agencies,  or  as  the  pastime  of  retire- 
ment or  old  age;  they  are  nevertheless  full  of  suggestive 
data;  now  and  then  one  is  found  which  can  be  trusted 
throughout. 

A.     MINNESOTA 

First  in  importance  for  the  Scandinavian  settlements 
in  Minnesota  are  four  county  histories:  History  of  Fill- 
more  County,  including  Explorers  and  Pioneers  of  Minne- 
sota (1882)  ;  History  of  Goodhue  County  (1882)  ;  History 
of  Houston  County,  etc.  (1882) ;  Martin  E.  Tew  and  Victor 
E.  Lawson  and  J.  E.  Nelson,  Illustrated  History  and  De- 
scription and  Biographical  Review  of  Kandiyohi  County, 
Minnesota  (1905), — easily  the  best  local  history  relating 
to  Scandinavian  settlement,  as  well  as  one  of  the  latest  and 
most  comprehensive.  Closely  connected  with  this  last 


192  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [422 

work  in  scope  and  value  is  Alfred  Soderstrom,  Minneapolis 
Minnen:  Kulturhistorisk  Axplockning  frdn  Qvarnstaden 
vid  Mississippi  (1899).  Other  works  dealing  with  the 
State  or  sections:  Isaac  Atwater  (editor),  History  of  the 
City  of  Minneapolis,  Minnesota  (1893) ;  Fredk.  W.  Har- 
rington, Geography,  History,  and  Civil  Government  of 
Minnesota  (1883)  ;  Soren  Listoe,  Staten  Minnesota  i  Nord 
Amerika  (1869) ;  History  of  the  Minnesota  Valley  (1882)  ; 
History  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  Valley  (1882). 

W.  A.  Gates,  Alien  and  Non-resident  Dependents  in 
Minnesota  (in  Proceedings  of  National  Conference  of 
Charities  and  Correction,  (1899) ;  F.  H.  B.  MacDowell, 
"Minneapolis  and  her  Scandinavian  Population",  Scandi- 
navia, III  (1884)  ;  Louis  Pio,  "The  Sioux  War,  in  1862— 
a  Leaf  from  the  History  of  Scandinavian  Settlers  in  Minne- 
sota", Scandinavia,  I  (1883). 

B.     WISCONSIN 

Of  the  State  as  a  whole:  J.  W.  Hunt,  Wisconsin 
Gazetteer,  containing  the  Names,  Locations,  and  Advan- 
tages of  the  Counties,  Cities,  Towns,  Villages,  Postoffices, 
and  Settlements  (1853) ;  Wm.  R.  Smith,  {The  History  of 
Wisconsin,  in  three  Parts:  Historical,  Documentary,  and 
Descriptive  (1852)  ;  Alexander  M.  Thompson,  A  Political 
History  of  Wisconsin  (1902)  ;  Charles  R.  Tuttle,  An  Illus- 
trated History  of  the  State  of  Wisconsin  (1875) ;  R.  G. 
Thwaites,  Preliminary  Notes  on  the  Distribution  of  For- 
eign Groups  in  Wisconsin  (in  Annual  Reports  of  State 
Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin,  1890) ;  G.  W.  Peck  (edi- 
tor), Cyclopedia  of  Wisconsin,  2  vols.  (1906). 

For  the  localities:  Spencer  Carr,  A  Brief  Sketch  of 
La  Crosse,  Wisconsin  (1854)  ;  Daniel  S.  Durrie,  A  History 
of  Madison,  the  Capital  of  Wisconsin  ....  with  an  Ap- 
pendix of  Notes  on  Dane  County  (1874) ;  E.  W.  Keyes, 
History  of  Dane  County,  3  vols.  (1906) ;  The  History  of 
Racine  and  Kenosha  Counties  (1879) ;  The  History  of 
Rock  County  (1879) ;  The  History  of  Waukesha  County 
(1880) ;  H.  L.  Skavlem,  "Scandinavians  in  the  Early  Days 
of  Rock  County,  Wisconsin",  Noirmands-Forbundet  (1909). 


423]  ESSAY  ON  MATERIALS  AND  AUTHORITIES  193 

C.     ILLINOIS 

Charles  A.  Church,  History  of  Rockford  and  Winne- 
bago  County,  Illinois,  From  its  first  Settlement  in  1834  to 
the  Civil  War  (1900) ;  History  of  Henry  County,  Illinois 
(1877) ;  The  Past  and  Present  of  La  Salle  County  (1877) ; 
John  M.  Palmer,  The  Bench  and  Bar  of  Illinois.  Histor- 
ical and  Reminiscent  (1899). 

Eric  Johnson  (Janson)  and  C.  F.  Peterson,  Scans- 
karne  i  Illinois,  Historiska  Anteckningar  (1880),  is  an 
early  work  of  limited  scope  but  judiciously  written. 

E.  W.  Olson  (Editor  with  A.  Schon  and  M.  J.  Eng- 
berg),  History  of  the  Swedes  of  Illinois,  2  vols.  (1908), 
has  some  valuable  chapters  in  the  first  volume,  especially 
ch.  IV  on  the  Bishop  Hill  Colony,  and  the  chapters  dealing 
with  Swedish  churches ;  volume  two  is  devoted  to  the  usual 
illustrated  biographies. 

D.    IOWA 

Charles  K.  Tuttle,  An  Illustrated  History  of  the  State 
of  Iowa  (1876) ;  W.  E.  Alexander,  History  of  Winneshiek 
and  Allamakee  Counties,  Iowa  (1882)  ;  Charles  H.  Sparks, 
History  of  Winneshiek  County,  with  Biographical  Sketches 
of  its  Eminent  Men  (1877) ;  J.  J.  Louis,  Shelby  County; 
Charles  H.  Fletcher,  iThe  Centennial  History  of  Jefferson 
County  (1876)  ;  A  Biographical  Record  of  Boone  County 
(1902) ;  A.  Jacobson,  The  Pioneer  Norwegians  (1905). 

G.  T.  Flom,  "The  Coming  of  the  Norwegians  to  Iowa," 
Iowa  Jour,  of  Hist,  and  Politics,  III  (1905)  ;  "The  Early 
Swedish  Immigration  to  Iowa,"  Ibid.,  Ill  (1905),  "The 
Danish  Contingent  in  the  Population  of  early  Iowa,"  Ibid., 
IV  (1906),  and  "The  Growth  of  the  Scandinavian  Factor 
in  the  Population  of  Iowa,"  Ibid.,  IV  (1906) ;  B.  L.  Wick, 
"The  Earliest  Scandinavian  Settlement  in  Iowa,"  Iowa 
Historical  Record,  XVI  (1900)  ;  F.  A.  Danborn,  "Swede 
Point,  or  Madrid,  Iowa",  Year-Book  of  the  Swedish  His- 
torical Society  of  America,  1911-1913. 

E.     OTHER  STATES 

North  Dakota:  H.  V.  Arnold,  History  of  Grand  Forks 
County  ....  including  an  Historical  Outline  of  the  Red 


194  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [424 

River  Valley  (1900) ;  T.  Haggerty,  The  Territory  of  Da- 
kota (1889) ;  Compendium  of  the  History  and  Biography 
of  North  Dakota  (1900). 

Nebraska:    History  of  the  State  of  Nebraska  (1882) . 

Kansas:  John  A.  Martin,  Addresses  ("The  Swedes  in 
Kansas")  (1888). 

Utah:  H.  H.  Bancroft,  Utah,  1540-1886  (in  History 
of  the  Pacific  Coast  States  of  North  America,  vol.  XXI, 
1889). 

New  York:  Arad  Thomas,  Pioneer  History  of  Orleans 
County,  New  York  (1871) ;  G.  J.  Mason,  "The  Foreign 
Element  in  New  York  City,"  Harper's  Weekly  (Sept., 
1888) ;  S.  Folkestad,  "Norske  i  Brooklyn-New  York", 
Symra  (1908). 

TRAVELS  AND  GUIDE  BOOKS 

Good  accounts  of  conditions  in  the  European  king- 
doms, as  those  conditions  were  related  to  emigration  at 
different  periods,  are:  Samuel  Laing,  A  Tour  of  Sweden 
in  1838:  comprising  Observations  on  the  Moral,  Political 
and  Economic  State  of  the  Swedish  Nation  (London  1839 ) , 
and  Journal  of  a  Residence  in  Norway  during  the  Years 
1834, 1835  and  1836  (2nd  ed.,  1837)  ;  Charles  Loring  Brace, 
The  Norsk  Folk;  or  a  Visit  to  the  Homes  of  Norway  and 
Sweden  (1857)  ;  Mrs.  Woods  Baker,  Pictures  of  Swedish 
Life,  or  Svea  and  her  Children  (1894) ;  J.  F.  Hanson,  Light 
and  Shade  from  the  Land  of  the  Midnight  Sun  (1903) . 

Of  the  numerous  travelers  through  the  American 
Northwest,  noting  the  Scandinavian  settlements  or  the 
conditions  affecting  them,  the  most  significant  is  Freder- 
ika  Bremer,  The  Homes  of  the  New  World — Impressions 
of  America  ( In  translation  from  the  Swedish,  3  vols.,  Lon- 
don, 1853),  the  work  of  an  educated,  alert,  sympathetic 
Swedish  lady  already  noted  as  a  writer.  Others  of  special 
worth  are  C.  C.  Andrews,  Minnesota  and  Dakota:  in  Let- 
ters Descriptive  of  a  Tour  through  the  Northwest  in  the 
Autumn  of  1856  (1857)  ;  Johan  Bolin,  Beskrifning  ofver 
Nord  Amerikas  Forenta  Stater  (Wexjo,  1853) ;  A.  Budde, 
Af  et  Brev  om  Amerika  (Stavanger,  1850) ;  Basil  Hall, 


425]  ESSAY  ON  MATEBIALS  AND  AUTHORITIES  195 

Travels  in  North  America  in  the  Years  1827-1828  (1829, 
Edinburgh,  3  vols.) ;  Thorvald  Klavenes,  Det  Norske  Amer- 
ika  (Kristiania,  1904) ;  Harriet  Martineau,  Society  in 
Autumn  of  1856  (1857)  ;  Johan  Bolin,  Beskrifning  ofver 
Amerika  (Goteborg,  1872)  ;  P.  Waldenstrom,  GenomNorra 
Amerikas  Forenta  Stater:  Reiseskildringar  (Stockholm, 
1890) ;  Victor  Wickstrom,  Som  Tidningsman  Jorden 
Rundt  (Ostersund,  1901). 

Of  guidebooks  and  handbooks  for  emigrants  and  im- 
migrants there  is  a  great  number,  in  English,  Swedish, 
and  Norwegian;  some  issued  from  philanthropic  motives, 
some  by  interested  States,  railroad  companies,  land  com- 
panies, and  counties,  and  some  by  the  United  States.  Only 
those  that  directly  affected  the  Scandinavians,  or  that  are 
typical  of  a  period,  are  mentioned,  and  the  list  is  not  meant 
to  be  exhaustive  of  titles  or  editions.  Some  of  the  publica- 
tions by  States,  might  well  have  been  put  under  the  head- 
ing of  State  documents. 

One  of  the  typical,  widely  circulated  English  hand- 
books is  William  Cobbett,  The  Emigrant's  Guide,  in  ten 
Letters  addressed  to  the  Taxpayers  of  England,  containing 
Information  of  every  Kind,  necessary  to  Persons  who  are 
about  to  emigrate  (London,  1829).  A  similar  Norwegian 
pamphlet  is  L.  J.  Fribert,  Haandbog  for  Emigranter  til 
Amerikas  Vest  ( Christiania,  1847),  or  J.  R.  Reierson, 
Veiviser  for  norske  Emigranter  til  de  forenede  nordamer- 
ikamke  Stater  och  Texas  (Christiania,  1844,  reprinted  in 
America,  1899).  The  United  States  issued  a  guide:  Ed- 
ward Young,  Special  Report  on  Immigration;  accompany- 
ing Information  for  Immigrants  ( 1871 ) ,  reprinted  in  1872, 
with  editions  in  French  and  German.  Other  works  are: 
Frederick  B.  Goddard,  Where  to  Emigrate  and  Why 
(1864) ;  and  Edward  Young,  Information  for  Immigrants, 
relative  to  Prices  and  Rentals  of  Land,  etc.  ( 1871 ) . 

For  Wisconsin,  the  most  significant  and  helpful  are: 
Beskrivelse  over  Staten  Wisconsin:  Dens  Klimat,  Jord- 
bund,  Agerdyrkning,  samt  Natur-  og  Kunstprodukter. 
Udgivet  efter  Legislatnrens  Ordre  af  Statens  Immigrations 


196  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [426 

Department  (1870) ;  K.  K.  Kennan  (joint  agent  in  Europe 
for  the  Wisconsin  State  Board  of  Immigration  and  the 
Wisconsin  Central  Kailroad,  without  expense  to  the  for- 
mer), Staten  Wisconsin,  dens  Hjcelpekilder  og  For  dele  for 
Udvandreren  (1884) — in  several  editions,  and  also  in 
Swedish;  C.  F.  J.  Moeller,  Staten  Wisconsin,  beskreven 
med  scerligt  Hensyn  til  denne  Stats  fortrinlige  Stilling  som 
et  fremtidigt  Hjem  for  Emigranter  fra  Danmark,  Norge, 
og  Sverige  (1865) ;  Wisconsin, — What  it  offers  to  the  Im- 
migrant. An  official  Report  published  by  the  State  Board 
of  Immigration  of  Wisconsin  (1879) — many  editions,  and 
in  various  languages. 

For  Minnesota:  Girart  Hewitt,  Minnesota:  Its  Ad- 
vantages to  Settlers,  etc.  (1868), — seven  editions,  one  be- 
ing published  by  the  State;  Hans  Mattson,  Minnesota  och 
dess  Fordelar  for  Indvandreren  (1867) ;  Minnesota  as  a 
Hame  for  Emigrants  (1886), — in  Norwegian  and  Swedish 
also. 

For  other  States:  Resources  of  Dakota, — an  Official 
Publication  compiled  by  the  Commissioner  of  Immigration 
(1887),  later  editions  dealing  with  the  two  States  formed 
from  the  Teritory  of  Dakota;  Fred.  Gerhard,  Illinois  as  it 
is:  its  History,  Geography,  Statistics,  etc.  (1857)  ;  Iowa: 
the  Home  for  Immigrants  (1879),  also  in  Swedish,  Nor- 
wegian, German,  and  Dutch. 

BIOGRAPHIES  AND  AUTOBIOGRAPHIES 

Several  of  the  books  mentioned  under  special  his- 
tories, like  those  of  Norelius,  Langeland,  Dietrichson,  and 
Schroeder,  have  much  autobiographical  material  in  them; 
while  others,  such  as  the  volumes  of  O.  N.  Nelson  and 
C.  F.  Peterson  and  the  county  histories,  contain  hundreds 
of  brief  biographies.  The  more  important  and  illuminating 
autobiographies  are:  Hans  Mattson,  Minnen  (Lund,  1890) 
and  the  same  in  translation,  Reminiscences,  the  Story  of 
an  Emigrant  (1891),  an  interestingly  naive  account  of  the 
varied  activities  of  a  prominent  politician  and  business 
man ;  Gustaf  Unonius,  Minnen  frdn  en  sjutton-drig  Vistelse 
i  Nordvestra  Amerika  (2  vols.,  Upsala,  1862),  a  graphic 


427]  ESSAY  ON  MATERIALS  AND  AUTHORITIES  197 

account  of  the  first  years  of  Swedish  settlement,  by  one  of 
its  highly  educated  leaders,  and  Bihang  till  Minnen 
(Stockholm,  1891).  With  less  direct  bearing,  is  W.  H.  C. 
Folsom,  Fifty  Years  in  the  Northwest  (1888) ;  H.  P.  Hall, 
H.  P.  Hall's  Observations,  being  more  or  less  a  History  of 
Political  Contests  in  Minnesota  from  1843  to  1904  (1904)  ; 
John  Reynolds,  My  Own  Times,  embracing  also  the  History 
of  My  Life  (Chicago,  1855) ;  Stephen  Grellet,  Memoirs 
(edited  by  Benj.  Seebohm,  2  vols.,  1860) ;  and  S.  B.  New- 
man, Pastor  S.  Newmans  Sjelfbiografi  (1890). 

Four  biographies  stand  out  above  the  others:  T.  N. 
Hasselquist,  Lefnadsteckning  af  E.  Norelius;  L.  A.  Sten- 
holt,  En  Studie  af  Knute  Nelson  (1896) ;  Chr.  O.  Brohough, 
and  I.  Eisteinsen,  Kortfattet  Beretning  om  Elling  Eiel- 
sens  Liv  og  Virksomhed  (1883)  ;  and  L.  M.  Bjorn,  Pastor 
P.  A.  Rasmussen  (1905).  Other  biographies  of  less  sig- 
nificance for  this  study  are:  C.  J.  Rosenberg,  Jenny  Lind 
in  America  (1851)  ;  Sara  C.  Bull,  Ole  Bull  (1883)  ;  W.  C. 
Church,  Life  of  John  Ericsson  (2  vols.,  1890). 

Other  collected  biographies,  including  Scandinavians, 
are:  J.  C.  Jensson,  American  Lutheran  Biographies 
(1890) ;  Men  of  Minnesota  (1902)  ;  F.  G.  Flower,  Bio- 
graphical Souvenir  Book  (1899),  relating  to  North  Da- 
kota alone ;  Prominent  Democrats  of  Illinois  ( 1899 ;  H.  A. 
Tenney,  and  D.  Atwood,  Fathers  of  Wisconsin  (1880) ; 
C.  J.  A.  Erickson,  "Memories  of  a  Swedish  Immigrant," 
Annals  of  Iowa,  April,  1907. 

RELIGION,  EDUCATION,  AND  THE  PRESS 

No  attempt  is  made  here  at  a  bibliography  of  the 
abundant  polemical  religious  literature,  nor  of  the  ser- 
mons and  proceedings  of  church  conventions,  nor  of  denom- 
inational year  books,  further  than  to  show  the  material 
contributing  to  this  valume.  In  similar  manner,  a  limit 
is  put  upon  the  list  of  catalogs  and  publications  of  colleges 
and  seminaries,  and  upon  the  periodicals  and  newspapers 
of  which  the  number  is  very  large. 

A  very  recent  and  excellent  volume  dealing  with  Nor- 
wegian progress  and  culture  in  America  is  Norsk-Ameri- 


198  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [428 

kanernes  Festskrift,  1914  (Chief  Editor,  Jobs.  B.  Wist) 
which  was  prepared  as  an  American  contribution  to  the 
celebration  of  the  centennial  of  Norwegian  independence. 
Important  chapters  are  devoted  to  the  press  (noted  below), 
the  churches,  schools,  literature,  and  men  in  public  or 
political  life,  each  being  the  work  of  a  careful  scholar. 

The  most  valuable  volumes  dealing  with  the  religious 
histories  of  Scandinavian  settlement  are  E.  Norelius,  De 
Svenska  Luterska  Forsamlingarnas  och  Svenskarnes  His- 
toria  i  Amerika  (1890)  and,  of  almost  equal  worth,  for 
Norwegian  church  history,  Th.  Bothne,  Kort  Udsigt  over 
det  Lutherske  Kirkearbeide  blandt  Nordmcendene  i  Amer- 
ika (1898),  being  a  separate  made  up  of  a  section  of 
"Norske  Kirkeforhold  i  Amerika,"  pp.  815-903,  of  H.  G. 
Heggtveit,  Illustreret  Kirkehistorie.  Good  brief  sketches 
of  various  denominations  are  embodied  in  O.  N.  Nelson, 
History  of  the  Scandinavians,  already  noted.  The  most 
important  of  the  other  works  are:  R.  Anderson,  Den 
Evangelisk  Lutherske  Kirkes  Historic  i  Amerika  (1889)  ; 
and  Emigrantmissjonen,  Kirkelig  Vejledning  for  Udvan- 
drere  (1884)  ;  H.  K.  Carroll,  The  Religious  Forces  of  the 
United  States,  enumerated,  classified,  and  described  on  the 
Basis  of  the  Government  Census  of  1890  .  .  .  Revised 
to  1896  (1896) ;  Theodor  H.  Dahl,  Den  Forenede  Kirke: 
Fred  og  Strid  eller  Lidt  Forenings  Historic  (1894) ;  O. 
Ellison,  Svenska  Baptisternas  i  Wisconsin  Missions  His- 
toria  (1902) ;  Simon  W.  Harkey,  The  Mission  of  the 
Lutheran  Church  in  America  (1853) ;  O.  J.  Hatlestad, 
Historiske  Meddelelser  om  den  norske  Augustana  Si/node 
(1887) ;  H.  G.  Heggtveit,  Illustreret  Kirkehistorie  (1898)  ; 
Chauncy  Hobart,  History  of  Methodism  in  Minnesota 
(1887) ;  Henry  E.  Jacobs,  A  History  of  the  Evangelical 
Lutheran  Church  in  the  United  States  (1893) ;  J.  N.  Len- 
ker,  Lutherans  in  all  Lands  (1896)  ;  N.  M.  Liljengren  and 
C.  G.  Wallenius,  Svenska  Methodismen  i  Amerika  (1885) ; 
Minde  fra  Jubelfesterne  paa  Koshkonong  (1894)  ;  M.  W. 
Montgomery,  The  Work  among  the  Scandinavians  (1888) 
and  "A  Wind  from  the  Holy  Spirit,"  Sweden  and  Norway 
(1884) ;  A.  H.  Newman,  History  of  the  Baptist  Churches  in 


429]  ESSAY  ON  MATERIALS  AND  AUTHORITIES  199 

the  United  States  (1894),  and  A  Century  of  Baptist 
Achievement  (1901) ;  E.  Norelius,  Evangeliska  Luterska 
Augustana  Synoden  i  Nord  Amerika  och  dess  Mission 
(1870)  ;  Affidavits  of  Sven  Oftedal,  et  al  (in  Dist.  Court 
of  Minnesota,  4th  Jud.  Dist.)  (1897) ;  H.  Olson,  Minnes- 
tal  ofver  framlidne  pastorn  0.  G.  Hedstrom  (1886) ; 
George  Richardson,  The  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Society  of 
Friends  in  Norway  (London,  1849) ;  Matthew  Simpson 
(editor),  Cyclopedia  of  Methodism  (5th  ed.,  1882)  ;  E.  J. 
Wolf,  The  Lutherans  in  America  (1890)  ;  N.  C.  Brim, 
"Kort  Oinrids  af  den  amerikansk-lutherske  Kirkes  His- 
toric", VorTid,  I  (1905). 

On  the  educational  side  are  Kiddle  and  Schem, 
Dictionary  of  Education  (1890)  ;  Chr.  Koerner,  The  Ben- 
nett Law  and  the  German  Parochial  Schools  of  Wisconsin 
(1890) ;  J.  W.  Stearns  (editor),  \The  Columbian  History 
of  Education  in  Wisconsin  (1893) ;  The  Bennett  Law  An- 
alyzed (1890)  ;  A.  Estrem,  "A  Norwegian- American  Col- 
lege (Luther  College),"  Midland  Monthly,  I  (1894)  ;  E.  S. 
White,  "Elk  Horn  College,"  Midland  Monthly,  II  (1894) ; 
J.  P.  Uhler,  "Scandinavian  Studies  in  the  United  States," 
Science,  IX  (1887)  ;  G.  Andreen,  "Det  svenska  Spraket  i 
Amerika",  Studentforeningen  Verdandis  Smdskrifter,  No. 
87  (Stockholm,  1900) ;  G.  T.  Flom,  A  History  of  Scandi- 
navian Studies  in  American  Universities  (Bulletin  of  the 
State  University  of  Iowa,  No.  153,  1907),  and  "Det  norsk 
sprogs  bruk  og  utvikling  i  Amerika",  Norma,nds-For- 
bundet,  IV  (1912)  ;  G.  Bothne,  "Nordiske  studier  ved 
amerikanske  universiteter",  Norsk-Amerikanernes  Fest- 
krift,  1914;  A.  A.  Stomberg,  "Swedish  in  American  Univer- 
sities", Year-Book  of  the  Swedish  Historical  Society  of 
America,  1909-1910;  C.  G.  Wallenius,  "Den  hogre  Skol- 
verksamheten  bland  Svenskarne  i  Amerika",  Year-Book  of 
the  Swedish  Historical  Society  of  America,  1911-1913. 

University  and  college  catalogs  and  registers  need 
not  be  enumerated  for  each  year ;  two  typical  years  would 
be  1895  and  1905 ;  Augustana  College  and  Seminary,  Rock 
Island,  111.;  Luther  College,  Decorah,  Iowa;  Bethany  Col- 


200  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [430 

lege,  Lindsborg,  Kansas;  Gustavus  Adolphus  College,  St. 
Peter,  Minnesota;  St.  Olaf  College,  Northfield,  Minnesota; 
Elk  Horn  College,  Elk  Horn,  Iowa;  Augsburg  Seminary, 
Minneapolis,  Minnesota;  Red  Wing  Seminary,  Red  Wing, 
Minnesota;  Northwestern  University;  University  of  Chi- 
cago; Chicago  Theological  Seminary;  University  of  Wis- 
consin ;  University  of  Minnesota ;  University  of  North  Da- 
kota; University  of  Nebraska;  State  University  of  Iowa. 

Exhaustive  and  scholarly  discussions  of  the  history  and 
character  of  the  Scandinavian  newspapers  and  periodicals 
published  in  the  United  States  are:  Juul  Dieserud,  "Den 
norske  presse  i  Amerika.  En  historisk  oversigt",  Nor- 
mands-Forbundet,  V  (April  1912)  ;  Carl  Hansen,  "Et 
Stykke  Norsk-Amerikanske  Pressens-historie",  Kvartal- 
skrift,  III  (Jan.  1907),  "Den  norsk-amerikanske  presse  f0r 
borgerkrigen",  Symra:  en  Aarbog  for  Norske  paa  begge 
Sider  af  Havet,  IV  (1908)  ;  and  "Den  norsk-amerikanske 
presse:  Pressen  til  borgerkrigens  slutning",  Norsk-Ameri- 
kanernes  Festskrift,  1914;  Johs.  B.  Wist,  "Den  norsk- 
amerikanske  press:  Pressen  efter  borgerkrigen",  Norsk- 
Amerikanernes  Festskrift,  1914 — remarkably  full  and  com- 
plete in  its  details;  E.  W.  Olson  (editor),  "Press  and  Liter- 
ature", History  of  the  Swedes  in  Illinois  (1908),  ch.  13. 
Less  important  is  Eric  Johnson,  "The  Swedish  American 
Press",  The  Viking,  I  (July  and  Aug.  1906). 

For  statistics  and  ratings  of  newspapers,  G.  P.  Rowell 
&  Co.,  American  Newspaper  Directories  (1869  to  1906)  ; 
N.  W.  Ayer,  American  Newspaper  Annual  (1881-1914) 
(Philadelphia). 

ECONOMIC,  SOCIAL,  AND  POLITICAL  QUESTIONS 

Florence  E.  Baker,  A  Brief  History  of  the  Elective 
Franchises  in  Wisconsin  (1894)  ;  Fremont  O.  Bennett,  Poli- 
tics and  Politicians  of  Chicago,  Cook  County,  and  Illinois 
(1886);  Eugene  Brown  and  F.  Fred  Rowe  (compilers), 
Industrial  and  Picturesque  Rockford,  Illinois  (1891; 
Carlo  De'Negri,  Appunti  di  Statistics  Comparata  dell' 
Emigrazione  dell'  Europa  e  della  Immigrazione  in  America 
e  in  Australia  (in  Bulletin  de  I'  Institute  International  de 


431]  ESSAY  ON  MATERIALS  AND  AUTHORITIES  201 

Statistique,  1888)  ;  John  G.  Gregory,  Foreign  Immigration 
to  Wisconsin  (1902) ;  C.  H.  Gronvald,  The  Effects  of  the 
Immigration  on  the  Norwegian  Immigrants  (in  Sixth 
Annual  Report  to  the  State  Board  of  Health  of  Minnesota, 
1878) ;  Hans  Mattson  (editor),  Two  Hundred  and  Fiftieth 
Anniversary  of  the  First  Swedish  Settlement  in  America, 
September  14,  1888  (1889) ;  Kobert  P.  Porter  (and 
others) ,  The  West:  from  the  Census  of  1880  (1882) ;  Julian 
Kalph,  Our  Great  West:  a  Study  of  the  Present  Conditions 
and  Future  Possibilities  of  the  New  Commonwealths  and 
Capitals  of  the  United  States  (1893) ;  Gustav  Sundbarg, 
Bidrag  till  Utvandringsfrdgen  frdn  Befolkningsstatistisk 
Synpunkt  (in  Upsala  Universitets  Arsskrift,  1884  o.  1885) ; 
Carl  Sundbeck,  Svensk-Amerikanerna,  deras  Materialla 
och  Andliga  Strafvanden  (1904) — a  good  up-to-date  sum- 
mary of  conditions  in  America;  William  W.  Thomas, 
Sweden  and  the  Swedes  (1893) ;  James  D.  Whelpley,  The 
Problem  of  the  Immigrant  (1905) ;  Edward  Young,  Labor 
in  Europe  and  America,  a  Special  Report  on  the  Rate  of 
Wages,  etc.  (1875), — a  particularly  valuable  book,  dealing 
with  conditions  in  Europe  on  the  eve  of  the  great  movement 
to  America. 

Two  groups  of  Federal  reports  are  very  useful:  Emi- 
gration from  Europe,  (Reports  from  the  Consuls  of  the 
United  States,  No.  76,  1887),  dealing  with  European  con- 
ditions; and  Emigration  to  the  United  States  (Special 
Consular  Reports,  vol.  XXX,  1904).  Another  exhaustive 
and  scholarly  investigation  is  embodied  in  Reports  of  the 
Industrial  Commission  on  Immigration,  including  testi- 
mony, with  Review  and  Digest,  and  Special  Reports,  being 
vol.  XV  of  the  Commission's  Reports  (1901). 

The  Civil  War  as  related  to  immigration  from  North- 
ern Europe  is  treated  in:  Ole  A.  Buslett,  Det  Femtende 
Regiment  Wisconsin  Frivillige  (1895) ;  P.  G.  Dietrichson, 
En  Kortfattet  Skildring  af  det  femtende  Wisconsins  Regi- 
ments Historic  og  Virksomhed  under  Borgerkrigen  (1884) ; 
J.  A.  Enander,  Borgerkrigen  i  de  Forenede  Stater  i  Nord 
Amerika  (1881) ;  John  A.  Johnson,  Det  Skandinaviske 
Regiments  Historic  (1869). 


202  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [432 

Important  articles  fin  periodicals :  F.  W.  Hewes, 
"Where  our  Immigrants  Settle"  (with  excellent  statistical 
maps),  World's  Work,  VI  (1903);  G.  G.  Huebner,  "The 
Americanization  of  the  Immigrant,"  Annals  of  the  Ameri- 
can Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  XXVII 
(1906) ;  Kichmond  Mayo-Smith,  "Control  of  Immigration", 
Political  Science  Quarterly,  III,  46, 197,  404  (1888) ;  G.  H. 
Schwab,  "A  Practical  Remedy  for  the  Evils  of  Immigra- 
tion," Forum,  XVI  (1893) ;  Nicolay  A.  Grevstad,  "Courts 
of  Conciliation,"  and  "Courts  of  Conciliation  in  America," 
Atlantic,  LXVIII  (1891),  LXXII  (1893). 

Various  numbers  of  Normands-Forbundet,  published 
in  Christiania,  have  contained  noteworthy  articles,  besides 
those  mentioned  elsewhere  in  this  bibliography,  dealing 
with  American  conditions:  S.  Sondresen,  "Den  norsk- 
amerikanske  farmer"  (1908)  ;  J.  Dieserud,  "Nordmsendenes 
deltagelse  i  de  Forenede  Staters  politiske  liv"  (1908) ;  M. 
Alger,  "Re-immigrationen"  (1913) ;  Av.  Kand.  Gottenborg, 
"Hjemvandte  norsk-amerikanere,  deres  livsforhold  i 
Amerika  og  i  Norge  efter  hjemkomste"  (1913)  ;  O.  K.  Win- 
berg,  "Degenererer  Nordmaend  i  Amerika"  (1910). 

Three  small  novels  contain  particularly  graphic  ac- 
counts of  the  life  and  social  conditions  among  the  Nor- 
wegian settlers:  P.  O.  Stromme,  Hvorledes  Halvor  blev 
Prest  (1893) ,  one  of  the  very  best  pictures  of  pioneer  immi- 
grant family  life;  H.  A.  Foss  (translated  by  J.  J.  Skordals- 
vold),  Tobias,  a  Story  of  the  Northwest,  an  exaggerated 
account  of  intemperance;  and  Sigurd  H.  Severson,  Dei 
mottes  ve  Utica.  En  paa  personlig  lagttagelse  grundet 
Skildring  af  Livet  i  celdre  Norsk- Amerikanske  Settlementer 
(1882). 

NEWSPAPERS 

The  number  of  newspapers  and  other  periodicals  for 
the  Scandinavians  in  the  United  States  yearly  given  in  G. 
P.  Rowell  &  Co.,  American  Newspaper  Directory,  has  varied 
in  recent  years  from  125  to  140,  while  the  total  of  short- 
lived and  long-lived  publications  of  the  same  sort  would 
pass  200.  The  following  list  includes  those  periodicals, 


433]  ESSAY  ON  MATERIALS  AND  AUTHORITIES  203 

chiefly  newspapers,  which  were  useful  in  some  special  de- 
gree in  preparing  this  volume: 

America,  Chicago,  an  English  monthly  for  Swedes  and 
Norwegians. 

American-Scandinavian  Review,  New  York,  1913 — Engl. 
bi-mo. 

Amerika,  Chicago  &  Madison,  Wis.,  1884  (united  with 
Norden,  1897  q.  v. ) ,  Norw.  Wkly. 

Billed-Magazin,  Skandinavisk,  Madison,  Wis.,  1868-1870. 
Norw.  mo. 

Budstikken,  Minneapolis,  1872 — .    Norw.  wkly. 

Chicago  Daily  Tribune,  Chicago,  1847 — .  dly. 

Chicago  Record-Herald,  Chicago,  1854 — .  dly. 

Dannevirke,  Cedar  Falls,  Iowa,  1880 — .    Dan.  wkly. 

Danske  Pioneer,  Omaha,  Neb.,  1873 — .    Dan.  wkly. 

Deoorah  Posten,  Decorah,  Iowa,  1874 — .    Norw.  wkly. 

Fwdrelandet  og  Emigranten,  La  Crosse,  Wis.,  and  Minne- 
apolis, 1864-1888.  (Emigranten,  Inmansville,  Wis., 
1852;  Janesville,  1856;  Madison,  1857;  La  Crosse, 
1864,  and  united  with  Fcedrelandet.Q  Norw.  wkly. 

Folkebladet,  Minneapolis,  1878 — .    Norw.  wkly. 

Gamla  och  Nya  Hemlandet,  Chicago,  1855.    Sw.  wkly. 

Korsbaneret,  Rock  Island,  111.,  1880.    Sw.  church  annual. 

Kvartalskrift,  Minneapolis,  1903 — .     Nor.  qtly. 

Madison  Democrat,  Madison,  Wis.,  1852 — .    Eng.  dly. 

Milwaukee  Daily  Sentinel,  Milwaukee,  Wis.,  1837 — .  Eng. 
dly. 

Minneapolis  Evening  Journal,  Minneapolis,  1878 — Eng. 
dly. 

Minneapolis  Times,  Minneapolis,  1889-1905.    Eng.  dly. 

Minneapolis  Tribune,  Minneapolis,  1867 — .    Eng.  dly. 

Minneapolis  Tidende,  Minneapolis,  1887 — .  Norw.  dly.  and 
wkly. 

Minnesota  Stats  Tidning,  Minneapolis  and  St.  Paul, 
1877—.  Sw.  wkly. 

Norden,  Chicago,  1874-1897  (united  with  Amerika).  Norw. 
wkly. 

Nordvesten,  St.  Paul,  1883 — .    Norw.-Dan.  wkly. 


204  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [434 

Nordmanden,  Grand  Forks,  N.  D.,  1887 — .    Norw.  wkly. 

Nordmands-Forbundet,  Christiania,  Norway,  1908 — .    Nor. 

Normannen,  Stoughton,  Wis.,  1867.    Norw.  wkly. 

The  North,  Minneapolis,  1889-1894.  Eng.  wkly.  for  Scan- 
dinavians. 

Red  River  Fasten  (merged  with  Dakota),  Fargo,  N.  D., 
1879—.  Norw.  wkly. 

Rockford  Register,  Rockford,  111.,  1867—.    Eng.  dly. 

Rodhuggeren,  Crookston,  Minn.,  1880-1884.     Norw.  wkly. 

Scandinavia,  Chicago,  1883-1886.  Eng.  mo.  for  Scandi- 
navians. 

Skandinaven,  Chicago,  1866 — .  Norw.  dly,  wkly.,  and  tri- 
wkly.,  the  strongest  and  most  influential  Scandinavian 
paper  in  the  United  States. 

St.  Paul  Pioneer-Press,  St.  Paul,  1849—.    Eng.  dly. 

St.  Paul  Dispatch,  St.  Paul,  1868—.    Eng.  dly. 

Superior  Tidende  (originally  Posten),  Superior,  Wis., 
1888—.  Norw.-Dan.  wkly. 

Svensk-Amerikaneren,  Chicago,  111.,  1866 — .    Sw.  wkly. 

Svenska  Amerikanska  Posten,  Minneapolis,  1886 — .  Sw. 
wkly.,  a  large  and  influential  paper. 

Svenska  Folkets  Tidning,  Minneapolis,  1883 — .    Sw.  wkly. 

Svenska  Tribunen,  Chicago,  1868 — .    Sw.  wkly. 

Ugebladet,  Chicago,  later  Minneapolis,  1888 — .  Norw. 
wkly. 

Valdris-Helsing  (Valdris-Samband) ,  Iowa  City,  la.,  later 
Stillwater  and  Minneapolis,  Minn.,  1893 — .  Norw. 
mo.  (since  1912)  devoted  to  interests  of  immigrants 
from  Valders. 

The  Viking,  Fremont,  Neb.,  1906 — ?  Eng.  mo.  for  Scandi- 
navians. ' 

Vikingen,  Minneapolis,  1906 —    Norw.-Dan.  mo. 

Vor  Tid,  Minneapolis,  1905-1908.    Norw.  mo. 

Wisconsin  State  Journal,  Madison,  1897 — .    Eng.  dly. 


APPENDIX  I 
Statistical  Tables 


206 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN   ELEMKNT 


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209 


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210 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT 


[440 


TABLE  II 

FOREIGN-BORN   SCANDINAVIAN   POPULATION,   1850 
U.    S.   Census  of   1850 

Total  Total 

States  and  Territories    Denmark       Norway          Sweden  Scandi-  Popu- 

navians  lation 

Alabama 18                     3                   51  72  771,623 

Arkansas  7119  209,897 

California  92                 124                 162  378  92,597 

Conecticut    „  16                     1                    13  30  370,792 

Delaware    1              2  3  91,532 

District    of    Columbia....           6             5  11  51,687 

Florida    21                    17                   33  71  87,445 

Georgia   „ 24                     6                   11  41  906,185 

Illinois    93              2,415               1,123  3,631  851,470 

Indiana     10                    18                     16  44  988,416 

Iowa    „.  19                 361                 231  611  192,214 

Kentucky    7                     18                    20  45  982,405 

Louisiana    „ _..  288                   64                 249  601  517,762 

Maine    _  47                   12                   55  114  583,169 

Maryland    35                    10                   57  102  583,034 

Massachusetts    181                   69                 253  503  994,514 

Michigan    13                 110                   16  139  397,654 

Minnesota    Territory 1                       7                      4  12  6,077 

Mississippi    „  24                      8                    14  46  606,526 

Missouri    55                  155                    37  247  682,044 

New    Hampshire 3                     2                   12  17  317,976 

New   Jersey   28                      4                    34  66  489,555 

New  Mexico  Territory....  2215  61,547 

New    York. 429                 392.                753  1,574  3,097,394 

North   Carolina 6             9  15  869,039 

Ohio  „ „  53                    18                   55  126  1,980,329 

Oregon   Territory 2125  13,294 

Pennsylvania   97                   27                 133  257  2,311,786 

Rhode  Island  15                   25                    17  57  147,545 

South   Carolina 24                     7                  '29  60  668,507 

Tennessee  8             8  16  1,002,717 

Texas 49                 105                   48  202  212,592 

Utah   Territory 2                   32                     1  35  11,380 

Vermont  _ _      8              8  314,120 

Virginia  15                     5                   16  36  1,421,661 

Wisconsin     .              146              8,651                   88  8,885  305,391 


Total    1,837 


12,678 


3,559 


18,074 


23,191,876 


441] 


STATISTICAL    TABLES 


211 


TABLE  III 

FOREIGN-BORN   SCANDINAVIAN  POPULATION,  1870 
U.   S.  Census,   1870 

Total  Total 

States  and  Territories     Denmark       Norway  Sweden  Scandi-  Popu- 

navians  lation 

Alabama    80  21  105  206  996,992 

Arkansas  55  19  134  208  484,471 

California   1,837  1,000  1,944  4,781  560,247 

Connecticut    116  72  323  511  537,454 

Delaware  8                9  17  125,015 

Florida    40  16  30  86  187,748 

Georgia    42  14  35  91  1,184,109 

Illinois  3,711  11,880  29,979  45,570  2,539,891 

Indiana   315  123  2,180  2,618  1,680,637 

Iowa    2,827  17,554  10,796  31,177  1,194,020 

Kansas  502  588  4,954  6.044  364,399 

Kentucky   53  16  112  181  1,321,011 

Louisiana  290  76  358  724  726,915 

Maine  120  58  91  269  626,915 

Maryland  106  17  100  223  780,894 

Massachusetts  267  302  1,384  1,953  1,457,351 

Michigan  1,354  1,516  2,406  5,276  1,184,059 

Minnesota  1,910  35,940  20,987  58,837  439,706 

Mississippi  193  78  970  1,241  827,922 

Missouri    665  297  2,302  3,264  1,721,295 

Nebraska  1,129  506  2,352  3,987  122,993 

Nevada    208  80  217  505  42,491 

New  Hampshire   11  55  42  108  318,300 

New  Jersey   510  90  554  1,154  906,096 

New   York  1,698  975  •  5,522  8,195  4,382,759 

North  Carolina  8  5  38  51  1,071,361 

Ohio     284  64  252  600  2,665,260 

Oregon    87  76  205  368  90,923 

Pennsylvania   561  115  2,266  2,942  3,521,951 

Rhode  Island  24  22  106  152  217,353 

South  Carolina  50               60  110  705,606 

Tennessee  86  37  349  472  1,258,520 

Texas  159  403  364  926  818,579 

Vermont   21  34  83  138  330,551 

Virginia  23  17  30  70  1,225,163 

West  Virginia  21  1  5  27  442,014 

Wisconsin  5,212  40,046  2,799  48,057  1,054,670 

Arizona  Ter 19  7  7  33  9,658 

Colorado  Ter 77  40  180  297  39,864 

Dakota    Ter 115  1,179  380  1,674  14,181 

Dist.   of   Columbia 29  5  22  56  131,700 

Idaho  Ter 88  61  91  240  14,999 

Montana  Ter 95  88  141  324  20,595 

New  Mexico  Ter 15  5  6  26  91,874 

Utah   Ter 4,957  613  1,790  7,360  86,786 

Washington  Ter 84  104  158  346  23,955 

Wyoming   Ter 54  28  109  9,1  If 

Total    ..                   ...  30,098  114,243  97,327  241,686  38,558,371 


212 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN   ELEMENT 


[442 


TABLE   IV 

FOREIGN-BORN   SCANDINAVIAN   POPULATION,    1890 
U.  S.  Census  of  1890 


States  and  Territories     Denmark  Norway  Sweden 

Alabama    71  47  294 

Arizona   Territory    180  59  168 

Arkansas     125  60  333 

California     7,764  3,702  10,923 

Colorado   1,650  893  9,659 

Connecticut    1,474  523  10,021 

Delaware     41  14  246 

District    of    Columbia....  72  70  128 

Florida    105  179  529 

Georgia    61  88  191 

Idaho  1,241  741  1,524 

Illinois    12,044  30,339  86,514 

Indiana   ., 718  285  4,512 

Iowa    15,519  27,078  30,276 

Kansas    3,136  1,786  17,096 

Kentucky    92  120  184 

Louisiana    232  136  328 

Maine    696  311  1,704 

Maryland    130  164  305 

Massachusetts    1,512  2,519  18,624 

Michigan     6,335  7,795  27,366 

Minnesota  14,133  101,169  99,913 

Mississippi    . 90  54  305 

Missouri    1,333  526  5,602 

Montana   683  1,957  3,771 

Nebraska     14,345  3,632  28,364 

Nevada    332  69  314 

New   Hampshire   64  251  1,210 

New   Jersey   2,991  1,317  4,159 

New    Mexico    Ter 54  42  149 

New   York   6,238  8,602  28,430 

North   Dakota  2,860  25,773  5,583 

North    Carolina 26  13  51 

Ohio 956  511  2,742 

Oklahoma  Ter 37  36  138 

Oregon    .'....  1,288  2,271  3,774 

Pennsylvania   2,010  2,238  19,346 

Rhode    Island    ...„ 154  285  3,392 

South    Dakota   4,369  19,257  7.746 

South   Carolina  36  23  60 

Tennessee  92  41  332 

Texas     „ 649  1,313  2,806 

Utah   Territory  9,023  1,854  5.986 

Vermont   58  38  870 

Virginia    108  102  215 

Washington    2,807  8,334  10,272 

West  Virginia  44  7  72 

Wisconsin  13,885  65,696  20,157 

Wyoming    ..:.... 680  345  1.357 


Total 
Scandi- 
navians 
412 
407 
518 
22,389 
12,202 
12,018 
301 
270 
813 
340 
3,506 
128,897 
5,515 
72,873 
21,998 
396 
796 
2,711 
599 
22,655 
41,496 
215,215 
449 
7,461 
6,411 
46,341 
715 
1,425 
8,467 
245 
43,270 
34,216 
90 

4,209 

211 

7,333 

23,594 

3,831 

31,372 

119 

465 

4,768 

16,863 

966 

425 

21,413 

123 

99.738 

2,382 


Total 
Popu- 
lation 
1,513,017 
59,620 
1,128,179 
1,208,130 
412,198 
746,258 
168,493 
230,392 
391,422 
1,837,353 
84,285 
3,826,351 
2,192,404 
1,911.896 
1,427,096 
1,858,635 
1,118,587 
661,086 
1,042,390 
2,238,943 
2,093,889 
1,301,826 
1,289,600 
2,679,184 
132,159 
1,058,910 
45,761 
376,530 
1,444,933 
153,593 
5,997,753 
182,719 
1,617,947 
3,672,316 
61,834 
313,767 
5,258,014 
345,506 
328,808 
1.151.149 
1,767,518 
2,235,523 
207,905 
332,422 
1.655,980 
349,390 
762.794 
1.686.880 
•       60.705 


Total     .  132.543 


322.665 


478.041 


933,249 


62.622.250 


STATISTICAL    TABLES 


213 


TABLE  V 

FOREIGN  WHITE   STOCK  OF  SCANDINAVIAN  ORIGIN,   1910 
13th  Census,  I,  Chapter  viii,  Table  29 

Under  each  state  the  figures  represent 

(1)  foreign  born,  corresponding  to  the  figures  given  for   1850,  1870,  and  1890 

(2)  native  white  of  foreign  parentage 

(3)  native   white   of   mixed   parentage 

Grand 
Total 


2,485 


2,818 


1,585 


90,112 


35,157 


41,457 


778 


2,857 


1,141 


24,527 


332,088 


15,168 


Alabama 

Norway 
266 

Sweden 

752 

Denmark 
197 

Totals 
1,215 

114 
168 

481 
274 

105 
128 

700 
570 

Arizona    
Arkansas 

272 
164 
106 

76 

845 
427 
302 

385 

284 
172 
246 

178 

1,401 
763 
654 

639 

49 
77 

176 

374 

72 
198 

297 
649 

California    

9,952 
4,666 
2,528 

26,210 
14,797 
5,464 

14,208 
8,244 
4,043 

50,370 
27,707 
12,035 

Colorado    

1,787 
1,421 
826 

12,445 
9,681 
3,287 

2,755 
1,894 
1,061 

16,987 
12,996 
5,174 

Connecticut  

1,265 
499 
204 

18,208 
14,508 
1,788 

2,722 
1,845 
418 

22,195 
16,852 
2,410 

Delaware   

38 
15 
12 

332 

208 
85 

52 
17 
19 

422 

240 
116 

Florida     .  
Georgia 

303 
158 
303 

145 

728 
387 
412 

289 

295 
110 
161 

112 

1,326 
655 
876 

546 

Idaho 

56 
85 

2,566 

153 
196 

4,985 

33 
72 

2,254 

242 
353 

9,805 

Illinois    

2,221 
1,289 

32,913 

3,876 
2,124 

115,422 

2,680 
2,532 

17,368 

8,777 
5,945 

165,703 

Indiana 

26,572 
8,953 

531 

94,830 
19,879 

5,081 

11,551 
4,600 

900 

132,953 
33,432 

6,512 

363 
299 

4,824 
1,896 

692 
582 

5,879 
2,777 

214 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT 
TABLE  V    (Continued) 


Iowa              .  .    . 

Norway 
21,924 

Sweden 
26,763 

Denmark 
17,961 

Totals 
66,648 

30,392 
14,586 

28,859 
10,573 

17,814 
5,966 

77,065 
31,125 

Kansas    
Kentucky  

1,294 
1,371 
1,031 

53 

13,309 
15,911 
6,411 

190 

2,759 
2,635 
1,822 

78 

17,362 
19,917 
9,264 

321 

39 
40 

104 
148 

40 
96 

183 
284 

Louisiana  
Maine  ......  ........ 

294 
92 
252 

580 

344 
154 
438 

2,203 

239 
125 
392 

929 

877 
371 

1,082 

3,712 

Maryland 

288 
218 

363 

1,478 
627 

421 

715 
340 

237 

2,481 
1,185 

1,021 

144 
164 

209 
261 

88 
158 

441 
583 

Massachusetts  .... 
Michigan 

5,432 
2,170 
768 

7,638 

39,560 
25,149 
3,759 

26,374 

3,403 
1,706 
963 

6,313 

48,395 
29,025 
5,490 

40,325 

Minnesota       

6,778 
2,358 

105,302 

25,624 
4,939 

122,427 

6,055 
2,431 

16,137 

38,457 
9,728 

243,866 

126,549 
47,755 

118,083 
27,508 

15,430 
5,957 

260,062 
81,220 

Mississippi     

91 
32 
116 

292 
178 
280 

119 
51 
122 

502 
261 
518 

Missouri  „. 

660 
543 
537 

5,654 
4,937 
2,936 

1,729 
1,147 
1,380 

8,043 
6,627 
4,853 

Montana  

7,169 
4,859 
1,914 

6,410 
3,865 
1,527 

1,943 
1,302 
696 

15,522 
10,026 
4,137 

Nebraska    
Nevada          

2,750 
2,989 
1,968 

254 

23,219 
26,599 
8,668 

708 

13,673 
13,957 
4,932 

616 

39,643 
43,545 
15,568 

1,578 

107 
92 

293 
192 

393 
307 

793 
591 

New  Hampshire- 

491 

292 
69 

2,068 
1,172 
316 

131 

55 
69 

2,690 
1,519 

454 

[444 


Grand 
Total 


174,838 


46,543 


788 


2,330 


7,378 


2,045 


82,910 


88,510 


585,148 


1,281 


19,523 


29,685 


98,755 


2,962 


4,663 


445] 


STATISTICAL    TABLES 


215 


TABLE  V   (Continued) 


Norway 

Sweden 

Denmark 

Totals 

Grand 
Total 

New  Jersey  

5,351 
2,256 
745 

10,547 
5,899 
1,902 

5,056 
3,350 
1,261 

20,954 
11,505 
3,908 

36,367 

New  Mexico  
New   York.  

151 
109 
71 

25,012 

365 
240 
144 

53,703 

116 
75 
91 

12,536 

632 

424 
306 

91,251 

1,362 

10,171 
2,221 

29,284 

7,248 

5,006 
3,167 

44,461 
12,636 

148,348 

North  Carolina.... 

39 
13 
28 

112 
36 
70 

36 
13 
28 

187 
62 
126 

375 

North  Dakota...... 

45,937 
56,577 
20,770 

12,160 
10,533 
4,107 

5,355 
5,043 
1,805 

63,452 
72,153 
26,682 

162,287 

Ohio    
Oklahoma     

1,109 
571 
351 

351 

5,522 
4,075 
1,458 

1,028 

1,837 
1,150 
808 

550 

8,468 
5,796 
2,617 

1,929 

16,881 

425 
432 

943 
1,058 

518 

577 

1,886 
2,067 

5,882 

Oregon   

6,843 
4,643 
1,949 

10,099 
5,866 
2,233 

3,215 
2,167 
1,391 

20,157 
12,676 
5,573 

38,406 

Pennsylvania  

2,317 
995 
651 

23,467 
22,803 
5,415 

3,033 
1,656 
1,261 

28,817 
25,454 
7,327 

61,598 

Rhode    Island  

577 
230 
109 

7,404 
5,174 
636 

328 
153 
108 

8,309 
5,557 
853 

14,719 

South  Carolina.... 

82 
19 
40 

95 
20 
68 

51 
9 
68 

228 
48 
176 

452 

South   Dakota  

20,918 
27,803 
12,025 

9,998 
9,640 
3,654 

6,294 
6,396 
2,273 

37,210 
43,839 
17,952 

99,001 

Tennessee    
Texas    

89 
74 
79 

1,784 

363 
237 
281 

4,703 

163 

87 
119 

1,287 

615 
398 
479 

7,774 

1,492 

1,649 
1,012 

4,724 
2,171 

844 
942 

7,217 
4,125 

19,116 

Utah 

2,304 
1,562 
1,643 

7,227 
5,906 
3,930 

8,300 
10,169 

8,142 

17,831 
17,637 
13,715 

49,183 

216 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN   ELEMENT 


[446 


TABLE  V   (Continued) 


Norway 

Sweden 

Denmark 

Totals 

Vermont  
Virginia    

102 
41 
32 

311 

1,331 
905 
185 

368 

172 
74 
68 

239 

1,605 
1,020 
285 

918 

222 
164 

215 
138 

140 
95 

577 
397 

Washington  

28,363 
18,486 
5,875 

32,195 
18,244 
5,640 

7,804 
4,988 
2,286 

68,362 
41,718 
13,801 

West  Virginia  

38 
10 
31 

278 
196 

124 

67 
51 
48 

383 
257 
203 

Wisconsin    
Wyoming  

56,999 
71,681 
29,020 

623 

25,739 
23,268 
6,379 

2,497 

16,454 
15,903 
5,958 

962 

99,192 
110,852 
41,357 

4,082 

381 
245 

1,455 
598 

866 
521 

2,702 
1,364 

Grand 
Total 


2,910 


1,892 


123,881 


843 


251.401 


8,148 


447] 


STATISTICAL    TABLES 


217 


APPENDIX  II 

STATISTICS    OF    THREE    MINNESOTA    COUNTIES 
From  the  U.   S.   Census   Reports 


Chisago  County 

1860 

1870 

1880 

1890 

1900 

White  population  

1,729 

4,358 

7,982 

10,359 

13,248 

White  native-born  

1,209 

2,164 

4,017 

5,613 

8,230 

White  foreign-born  

734 

2,194 

3,965 

4,746 

5,018 

White  foreign  Danish  

14 

50 

67 

55 

White  foreign  Norwegian 

1,674 

3,160 

50 

69 

White  foreign  Swedish  

3,955 

4,215 

Acres    in    farms 

Improved    

3,468 

8,004 

31,198 

43,476 

85,277 

Unimproved  

18,484 

34,593 

72,595 

101,649 

129.501 

Cash  value  of  farms  

$124,019 

$477,720 

$1,171,426 

$2,563,630 

$3,419,310 

Fillmore  County 

White  population  

13,542 

24,887 

28,162 

25,966 

28,238 

White   native-born   

9,045 

15,178 

19,243 

19,034 

22,378 

White   foreign-born    

4,497 

9,709 

8,919 

6,932 

5,860 

White  foreign  Danish  

13 

96 

68 

59 

White  foreign  Norwegian.. 

_  

6,612 

5,191 

4,171 

3,593 

White  foreign  Swedish  

66 

53 

Acres  in  farms 

Improved    

75,542 

185,087 

361,100 

357,083 

389,386 

Unimproved     

216,454 

214,459 

134,333 

117,670 

131,875 

Cash  value  of  farms  $ 

11,844,797 

$6,636,880 

$9,535,815 

$9,935,202 

$14,240,595 

Otter  Tail  County 

White  population   

178 

1,968 

18,675 

34,232 

45,375 

White   native-born    

178 

888 

11,249 

20,884 

30,988 

White   foreign-born   

1,080 

7,426 

13,348 

14,387 

White  foreign  Danish  

41 

214 

345 

372 

White   foreign   Norwegian- 

889 

4,772 

5,955 

5,738 

White  foreign  Swedish  



2,470 

3,038 

Acres    in     farms 

Improved    

306 

3,632 

131,804 

311,175 

505,358 

Unimproved     

2,118 

28,898 

340,355 

405,380 

439,374 

Cash  value  of  farms $17,550        $151,281     $3,650,223     $8,511,465  $12,478,640 


INDEX 

Aaker,  L.  K.,  146-47. 

Agriculture  among  Scandinavians,  95-98. 

"America  Book",  influence  on  Norwegian  emigration,  37-40. 

Americanization,  106-111,  180-182. 

Anderson,  Paul,  116-117. 

Anderson,  R.  B.,  39,  155,  173. 

Banks,    Scandinavian,    104-5. 

Baptist  Church,  work  among  Scandinavians,  118-120. 

Behrens,  Capt.,  35-36. 

Bennett  Law  (Wisconsin),  166-168 

Bibliography,  183-204. 

Birth  rate,   132-33. 

Bishop  Hill  (111.),  Swedish  settlement,  54,  56-60. 

Bremer,  Frederika,  quoted,  52-3,  82. 

Bull,  Ole,  on  the  term  "Scandinavian",  15-16. 

Business,  Scandinavians  in,   102-5. 

California,  Scandinavian  population,  72-4. 

Capital :  brought  by  immigrants,  92-96 ;  investment,  94-97. 

Chicago   (111.):  Scandinavian  population,  73-4;  Swedish  settlement,  60. 

Chisago  Co.   (Minn.),  Swedish  settlement,  97-98;  politics,  163. 

Church,  see  names  of  denominations,  i.  e.,  Baptist  church. 

Cities,  Scandinavian  element,  73-4. 

Citizenship,  n,  83-4,  179-82. 

Civil  War,  part  played  by  Scandinavians,  75-8,  142,  149. 

Clausen,  C.  L.,  46-7. 

Climate,  influence  upon  distribution  of  immigration,  74-5. 

Colleges,  Scandinavian,  111-14. 

Communism,  in  Bishop  Hill  settlement,  51-60. 

Congregational  church,  work  among  Scandinavians,  116-19. 

Dane  Co.  (Wis.)  settlement,  no,  145. 

Danes :  character,  18 ;  in  politics,  140-43 ;  settlements,  63,  65. 

Danish    immigration:    69,    73-4;    character    of,    64;    statistics,    62,    67-74. 

See  also  Immigration. 
Danish  churches,  15,  63-65. 
Davidson,  J.  O.,  153. 
Defectives,  134-45. 

Delaware  River  (Swedish)  colony,  11-13. 

219 


220  THE  SCANDINAVIAN  ELEMENT  [450 

Delinquents,  134-35,  137-39- 

Democratic  party,  160-64,  166-70. 

Denmark:  economic  conditions,   18-19,  2I»  62-63,  68- 

emigration:  62,  64;  causes,  62,  63,  115;  statistics,  62,  67-74. 

population :  distribution,  21 ;  increase,  69-70,  132. 
Dietrichson,  J.  W.  C,  47-8. 
Duluth   (Minn.),  Scandinavian  population,  74. 

Eberhardt,  A.  O.,  153. 

Education,  65,  109-14,  166-70.    See  also  English  language;  illiteracy. 

Elk  Horn  (la.),  Danish  settlement,  63,  65. 

Emigration,  see  Immigration ;  Names  of  countries,  e.  g.  Denmark. 

English  language,  use  among  Scandinavians,  109-10,  113,  122-23,  131,  145, 

166-72. 

Ericsson,  John,  78. 
Esbjorn,  Paul,  117-18. 

Families,  large,  14,  132-133. 

Farmers'  Alliance,  162-63. 

Fillmore  Co.  (Minn.),  98-99,  no,  144. 

Fox  River  (111.),  Norwegian  settlement,  28-29,  36. 

Free  Soil  party,  158-59. 

Greenback  party,  161. 
Grevstad,  N.  A.,  156. 

Hasselquist,  T.  N.,  117-18. 

Hedstrom,  Jonas,  and  O.  G.,  50,  54,  116. 

Heg,  Even,  43,  44,  48. 

Heg,  H.  C.,  76. 

Hesthammer,  Peerson,  sec  Peerson  Kleng. 

Hovland,  G.  G.,  30,  35. 

Illinois:  Norwegian  settlement,  27,  28-9,  32-3,  36;  politics,  161,  168-69; 
Scandinavian  population,  72-4;  Swedish  settlement.  53-4,  56-7,  60. 

Illegitimacy,  134. 

Illiteracy.  109.    See  also  Education. 

Immigrants,  Americanization,  10,  107-108,  179-82;  classes,  11;  value  to 
U.  S.,  9,  91-93,  179-82. 

Immigration,  Scandinavian:  causes,  18-21 ;  81-8;  distribution,  71-4 ;  pro- 
moted by  railroads,  86-98;  promoted  by  states,  88-90;  statistics,  7-8, 
67-74,  205;  value  to  U.  S.,  91-105;  westward  expansion,  45,  66,  71,  75 
96.  See  also  Names  of  peoples,  i.  e..  Danes. 

Independent  party,  161. 

Indiana,  Norwegian  settlement,  27. 

Industry,  Scandinavians  in,  102-5. 

Insanity,  135-37- 


451]  INDEX  221 

Intermarriage,  130-131. 

Iowa:  Danish  settlement,  63;  immigration  promoted  by  state,  89-90;  Scan- 
dinavian population,  72-4;  Swedish  settlement,  53. 

Janson,  Eric,  55-9. 

Jansonist  colony,  see  Bishop  Hill. 

Jansonist  movement,  55-61. 

Jefferson  Prairie  (Wis.),  Norwegian  settlement,  41,  46. 

Johnson,  J.  A.,  152-53. 

Johnson,  John,  43. 

Johnson,  M.  N.,  154,  174-175. 

Koshkonong  (Wis.),  Norwegian  settlement,  44. 

Kvelve,  B.  A.,  32. 

Labor,  demand  for,  influence  on  immigration,  84-6. 
Laborers,  Scandinavian,  compared  with  American,  100-1. 
Land:  value  in  North  West,  cause  of  immigration,  81-2,  99;  increase,  87. 
Langeland,  Knud,  35,  160. 

Legislation,  influenced  by  Scandinavians,  169-71. 
Lind,  John,  152,  154-55,  161. 
Liquor  traffic,  attitude  of  Scandinavians,  171-72. 
Listoe,  Soren,  156. 

Lutheran  church:  among  Scandinavians  in  U.  S.,  46-7,  63-5,  114-16,  120-23; 
educational  efforts,  110-14;  166-67. 

Marriage,  131-32. 

Martineau,  Harriet,  quoted,  28. 

Mattson,  Hans,  90,  146,  150-51,  156. 

Merriam,  W.  R.,  162,  176. 

Methodist  church,  work  among  Scandinavians,  54,  116,  118-20. 

Michigan,  Scandinavian  population,  74. 

Minneapolis  (Minn.),  Scandinavian  population,  73,  74,  134;  politics,  163 n. 

Minnesota :   Danish  settlement,  63 ;   economic   development,  promoted  by 

Scandinavians,  97-9 ;    immigration  promoted  by   state,   90-1 ;   politics, 

144-56,  162-63 ;  Scandinavian  population,  72-4,  138. 
Missionary  work  among  Scandinavians,  46-48,  54,  115-20. 
Morality,  133-34- 

Mormons,  influence  upon  Danish  immigration,  63,  73,  115. 
Muskego  (Wis.),  42,  48. 

Nattestad,  Ansten,  37,  39-42. 
Nattestad,  Ole,  29,  31,  40. 

Nebraska :  Danish  settlement,  63 ;  Scandinavian  population,  72-3,  74. 
Nelson,  Knute,  151,  154,  164. 
New  Sweden  (la.),  53. 

New  York,  Norwegian  settlement,  26-7;  Swedish  settlement,  60. 
Newspapers,  Scandinavian:   16,  124-9,  203-4;  importance,  124-5,  129.  183; 
in  politics,  128,  142,  159-60,  164-5,  173-4!  number,  128. 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN   ELEMENT  [452 

Nordlyset,  126,  148,  159. 

North  Dakota:  politics,  147,  149-51,  162-3,  174-5;  Scandinavian  population, 

72-4. 

Northwest,  economic  development,  79-105. 
Norway:  economic  conditions,  18-20,  30-1,  41-2,  68. 

emigration :  22-3,  35,  40-2 ;  cost,  34 ;  difficulties,  33-4 ;  influenced 
by  religious  persecution,  24,  40;  influenced  by  settlers,  29-32,  37,  40; 
statistics,  62,  67,  74. 

population:  distribution,   19;  increase,  69-70,  132. 
Norwegians:  character,  17,  93;  in  politics,  140-56,  162. 

immigration:  22-3,  32,  35-6,  93;  effects  upon  Norwegians,  107-8; 
routes,  33-4,  36,  40-2;  statistics,  61,  67-74.  See  also  Immigration. 

settlements :  in  Illinois,  28-9,  36 ;  in  New  York,  26-7 ;  in  Wiscon- 
sin, 41,  42,  43-5. 

See  also  Scandinavians. 

Occupations  of  immigrants,  84-7,  95-7,  102,  131-2. 

Olson,  Jonas,  55,  59,  60. 

Olson,  Olof,  56. 

Otter  Tail  Co.  (Minn.),  98-99,  126;  politics,  163. 

Otteson,  J.  A.,  125,  133. 

Peerson,  Kleng,  24,  25,  28. 

Periodicals,  religious,  127-9. 

Pine  Lake  (Wis.)  settlement,  51-53. 

Place  names  of  Scandinavian  settlements,  99,  143-5. 

Political  parties,  see  Names  of  parties. 

Politics,   Scandinavian:    140-56,   166-78;   influenced   by  newspapers,   164-6, 

173-4- 

Populist  party,  161,  164. 
Prohibition,  see  Liquor  traffic. 

Quakers,  influence  upon  Norwegian  emigration,  23-5. 

Racine  Co.  (Wis.)  settlement,  42;  politics,  158. 
Railroads,  stimulus  to  immigration,  86-8. 

Religion,  among  Scandinavians,  45-8,  114-20;  relation  to  politics,  161. 
Religious  persecution,  24,  40,  56. 
Remittances  to  Europe,  94,  129. 
Republican  party,  157,  160-4,  166-8,  174-7. 
"Restoration"  (ship),  22,  25-6. 
Reymert,  J.  D.,  126,  148. 

Rochester  (N.  Y.),  Norwegian  settlement,  26. 

Rockford   (111.),  furniture  industry,  103;  Swedish  population,  73-4;  poli- 
tics, 169. 
Rynning,  Ole,  36-7,  39. 


453]  INDEX  223 

St.  Paul   (Minn.),  Scandianvian  population,  74,  134. 

"Scandinavian",  objection  to  term,  15. 

Scandinavian  immigration,  see  Immigration. 

Scandinavians:  birth  rate,  132-3;  character,  10,  16-7,  179-82;  in  agriculture, 
97-100;  in  business,  102-4;  in  cities,  73-4;  in  Civil  War,  75-8,  142,  149; 
in  domestic  service,  131-2;  in  industry,  103-4;  m  politics,  140-56, 
169-78;  morality,  133-4;  occupations,  84-7,  95-7,  102-5;  standard  of 
living,  101-2;  value  to  U.  S.,  7,  n,  83-4,  91-105,  179-82;  wealth,  97-8, 
102.  See  also  Danes,  Norwegians,  Swedes. 

Schroder,  Johan,  125-6. 

Settlers,  propagandists  of  immigration,  29-32,  41. 

Slavery,  attitude  of  Scandinavians  towards,  157-9. 

South  Dakota:  politics,  147,  149-51,  162-3,  175-6;  Scandinavian  population, 
72-4. 

Standard  of  living,  101-2. 

Statistics,  tables  of,  67,  85,  205. 

Sweden  :  economic  conditions,  18-20,  68. 

emigration:  50-1,  53;  causes,  51,  53-4,  56,  61 ;  statistics,  67-74. 
population :  distribution,  20 ;  increase,  69-70,  132. 

Swedes:  character,  12;  in  politics,  140-56,  161-2,  166-70;  value  as  citizens, 

13,  14- 

Swedish  immigration:  12,  22,  50-1,  53.  56-7,  61 ;  routes,  51,  53,  56-7; 
statistics,  67-74.  See  also  Immigration. 

settlements:  on  Delaware  River,  11-3;  in  Illinois,  60;  in  Iowa,  53; 
in  New  York,  60;  in  Wisconsin,  51-2. 

See  also  Scandinavians. 
Swenson,  L.  S.,  155. 

Texas,  Danish  settlement,  63;  Swedish  settlement,  61. 
Timanson,  Levor,  95. 
Transportation  in  West,  80,  84,  87. 

Unitarian  Church,  work  among  Scandinavians,  119. 

United  Norwegian  Lutheran  Church,  no,  120-121. 

U.  S.,  described  for  emigrants,  37-40;  economic  conditions,  influence  on 

Scandinavian    immigration,   68-9;    economic    development,   7,  79-105; 

population,  increase,  70. 
Unonius,  G.,  51,  53. 
Utah,  Scandinavian  population,  73-4,  115. 

Wages,  in  Scandinavian  countries,  85,  131 ;  in  U.  S.,  85,  131. 

Wealth,  possessed  by  Scandinavians,  97-8,  102. 

Wisconsin :  Danish  settlements,  63 ;  immigration  promoted  by  state  aid, 
88-9;  Norwegian  settlements,  40-46;  politics,  145,  148-51,  153-4,  160-1, 
166-8;  Scandinavian  population,  72-4,  138;  Swedish  settlement,  51-3. 


